


Twisted Sides: Sovereign

by ReaperStygian



Series: Twisted Sides AU [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dark, Betrayal, Big Bang Challenge, Blood and Violence, Coma, Evil, Murder, Quests, Twisted Sides AU, Yandere Patton, everyone hates each other and no one is happy, rape mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-06-20 16:50:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15538695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaperStygian/pseuds/ReaperStygian
Summary: Choices shape who we become, from the moment we’re born until the moment of our death. Thomas Sanders, in many worlds, has always been known for making good choices, and therefore, has always been known as a good person. But what if there’s a world in which choices had been wrongly made, in which choices had changed who Thomas Sanders is? In which certain choices had created the Twisted Sides?The Twisted Sides aren’t what you would expect. They’re violent, sadistic, and enjoy tearing each other down. When one of them betrays their leader, Deceit, they force Thomas to fall into a coma, as the war for leadership begins. Forces awaken, challenges are faced, and the Twisted Sides are prepared to fight, lie, or even kill for what they desire.Who's the masked traitor? What secrets are being hidden?But, most importantly, who will win and rule supreme?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the 2018 Big Bang Contest hosted on the Tumblr account @ts-storytime! Huge thank you to my two editors, @emo-nightmare and @but-jesuschrist-im-never-good, also over on Tumblr. I'm so glad we got to work on this project and have fun together.
> 
> The art for my story, by @lastbeginning can be viewed here:  
> https://l-b-art.tumblr.com/post/177574435185/here-is-the-art-for-the-second-ts-big-bang-story-i  
> This story's masterpost on Tumblr can be viewed here: https://sanderssides-deathangel.tumblr.com/post/177552893603/twisted-sides-sovereign-masterpost
> 
> My Fander tumblr is @sanderssides-deathangel, where I roleplay this AU, answer asks as them, and much more, so if you're interested in RPing, giving me writing requests, or just hanging out, see me there! Thank you for reading my story. <3

In a universe, different from ours, things went incredibly wrong. 

There was no one singular thing that made this change, this wrongness, occur. It was a series of changes, countless small changes leading up to large changes. The butterfly effect- the brush of one butterflies wings creating a tornado elsewhere. 

The tornado in question was one Thomas Sanders’s life. There are countless of universes with Thomas Sanders, but no matter the universe the majority of them held the man as someone to look up to. He was kind and brave, and though definitely not perfect, he embraced those imperfections and accepted all despite it. Thomas Sanders was a good person, with a good heart.

That’s what made this universe so wrong, so… twisted. Small changes leading up to big changes- leading up to a Thomas Sanders so different from all the rest. This isn’t a tale of love, and accepting oneself, and happiness. This is a tale of the abyss.

A place of darkness, full of monsters, and hatred, and doubt, and confusion, and pain, and sadness. Of death, of the stink of rot and the cold laughter of manipulation and greed. 

Thomas is no longer someone to look up to, though that’s not what he’d have you believe. He doesn’t believe in friends, in love, in helping others and getting nothing in return. He no longer thinks everyone who exists is useful, no longer thinks that everyone is perfect the way they are.

He believes in having fun. The world hurt him, so why play nice? Everyone only cares about themselves. 

In a twisted universe, Thomas himself became twisted. Of course, all versions of Thomas Sanders have sides- Roman, Patton, Virgil, Logan, Deceit, and perhaps even others. A twisted Thomas must have twisted sides, right?

Roman, a corrupted king. A selfish, greedy lord, making slaves of his kingdom and finding creativity in blood and torn open flesh- in glazed over eyes and rotting bodies, of corpses, piling up. Of stalking and chains and dark, hidden corners. He didn’t kill dragons, he enslaved them and made them his pets. 

Pathos, his mortality reflecting the morality of his host. Truthfulness, love, empathy, generosity, kindness, belief? Those were bad, wrong, disgusting things to be avoided. Lying, hatred, vengeance, pain, tears, blood? Good, great, fun and happy ways to spend the day!

Virgil, eager to sweep away their tracks. Using his claws, inward darkness and his power over sanity and insanity, of fear and panic for bad, hurting and controlling the others how he saw fit. He didn’t care what happened, found it all fun and amusing, and would be glad to be the one who hid the tracks of fingerprints and leftover splotches of blood as they hid cooling bodies in trash bins. 

Logos, your textbook psychopath. Emotionless, genius, precise. A large sense of how important he is, always happy to lord over others with his snappy, cruel words. His tongue was silver, voice cracking like a whip. He may not be as physical as the others, but that didn’t make the pain he caused any better.

Deceit, the king of them all, the snake in the garden of Eden, though this garden was rotting even without his help. He had taken the role of leading them, jumping to the task with a flourish of his heavy muddied cape and a glint in his slitted yellow eye. 

They played their parts, but in their world? Thomas’s head was a dark place, and every step could be leading you directly to your death. 

You have to adapt to survive, so they adapted alright. 

This isn’t a tale of happiness. It’s a tale of a twisted mind, a mind that isn’t going to be fixed with a hug and a declaration of love and some happy words. It’s a tale of silent screams, of a person who could have been great weighed down by society.

It’s a tale of a battle, and a winner, and a loser. 

It’s the tale of the Twisted Sides.


	2. Chapter 2

Definition of a sovereign:  _ a supreme ruler, especially a monarch. _

It started off as a normal day, which is how all stories start right before something terrible happens, blasting all the characters off their feet. But of course, you can’t go around assuming every day is going to be the one day things go wrong (unless you’re Virgil, but even then) so none of the sides were worried when the day started off as average.

They all lazed around the mindscape, half-aware of Thomas’s movements. Roman was writing about creative plans on murder, detailing exactly how to slice open a body in a way that was the most painful. Pathos was right beside him, drawing in precise lines the very death he was writing about, the crimson staining the black and white drawing in a way that made the blood stand out vividly. 

Logos was in his room, reading a book by the light of his lamp, the book written in some strange unknown language. Virgil was also in his room, sleeping in for the day, not yet needed as it was still early in the morning. Deceit of course was in the kitchen, a weird glint in his eyes as he kept an eye on Thomas and the others- he was, after all, their ‘leader.’

A tiny moment of nothing right before everything went to figurative hell. Thomas’s mind went dark. It wasn’t slow, like falling asleep, or with a flash, like the one time he had been knocked unconscious- it was just light one moment, and then completely dark the next, a clear sign for alarm.

It didn’t take long for the sides to slip into their spots inside their version of Thomas’s living room, a dark shadowy room always full of silence. Pathos and Roman were already bickering, and Virgil was tense and quiet, more so than usual, shadows flickering across his hidden form casted by the candles Logos had whipped up. 

“-everything went dark,” Roman spat. He had drawn his sword, and was holding it in a way that made it clear he was preparing to start slicing if they didn’t figure out what was going on.

“We hadn’t noticed,” Pathos said slightly dryly, jumping up and down on the base of his heels. “Was anyone watching Thomas while it happened? Maybe he died~~ I kind of expected more…”

“He didn’t die,” Roman snapped, waving his sword sharply in Pathos’ direction. “You’ll be the one dead if you don’t-”

_ “Keep talking,” _ Deceit drawled, and everyone fell silent, turning to him. None of them enjoyed listening to Deceit, but before they hadn’t had a leader, and Thomas had been unstable. He’d been terrible at hiding his true nature, and it could have got them all locked away. So no matter how much they hated it, when Deceit ordered them to do something, they did it. 

Deceit glanced at them all, and then looked at the candles. “I was watching,” he declared, “but I didn’t exactly see what happened... It happened quickly, there wasn’t much to see.” Deceit could tell the truth, easily, but he often sometimes spoke backwards. It was hard to tell which one he was using, but of course, that was the point- you’d never know when he was lying or telling the truth.

“You had to have seen at least a diminutive piece of evidence,” Logos said, rolling his eyes. Logos was sure if he was in Deceit’s shoes, he’d have helpful information. In his eyes, he was the smartest- a typical trait of a psychopath. “You observed the entire conundrum after all.”

“I told you everything I had to tell, at least I was trying to pay attention,” Deceit replied, narrowing his eyes at Logos.  _ “Shut up, and your tongue won’t be ripped out.” _ Logos narrowed his eyes back, looking like he was going to reply, before changing his mind- they couldn’t die, but they could badly injure each other, and it still hurt. Deceit had ‘punished’ them all before, and none of the sides wanted to repeat the experience. 

The sides went quiet, the aura of the room darkening even more. The sides themselves were ‘dark.’ They were mottled versions of what they could have been, clothes dark, stained in red. Their eyes were hollow sunken pits, like all light had been ripped out of them. Cruel smiles flitted across their faces like mirages, there and then gone, stitched into their skin.

It was like an assembly of ghosts- or maybe demons worked better, or ghouls. Not of living creatures, of people. Like Thomas Sanders was already dead on the inside.

“Now what?” Pathos questioned, breaking the silence as through slicing through it with a knife. The others glanced at him and then looked away.

For the first time, Virgil Sanders spoke up. “If something is wrong, we need to find out now,” he snarled softly. “Waiting could make it fester, worsen- like cancer. If it’s physical, there’s nothing we can do until Thomas wakes up. But if it’s mental… Well then, we should start searching through his mind for clues.” Virgil looked at Deceit, and all the sides, who had been looking at Virgil copied, turning to Deceit as well.

Shrugging, Deceit shook his head yes.  _ “That sounds like a bad idea,” _ he complimented. “It’s unusual for you to give us good ideas, Virgil.” Virgil flushed slightly, glaring at Deceit, not that Deceit seemed to notice- he had already turned towards the rest of them. “Now go search,” he commanded.  _ “If you don’t find anything, do not return here.” _

Nods all around, and Pathos, Roman, and Logos faded from the room. Raising an eyebrow, Deceit turned towards Virgil, tilting his head. After a moment of tense silence, Virgil rose to his feet, dusting off his clothes- not that it helped much, Virgil’s clothes were caked with dust. Bandages peeked through the numerous rips covering both his coat and his shirt, many of the bandages soaked in blood.

“If this is something mental…” Virgil looked away. “Anything slow moving would have taken time. Issues happening in a flash isn’t usual. It’s likely, if my suspicions are correct, that this was… an inside job-”

Deceit moved quickly, wrapping a hand around Virgil’s wrist and twisting. Virgil hissed sharply, eyes flashing as a crack sounded out, his wrist snapping. Already, it was knitting together, and Virgil ground his teeth at the pain. “Go search, NOW,” Deceit hissed, their faces way too close for comfort.

Swallowing back his words and his instant fighting instincts and pulling on his senses of safety, and precaution, and being careful- of fleeing -Virgil only nodded, ignoring the rage he felt at Deceit’s actions. In another moment, he was gone just like the others. 

~

The subconscious of Thomas’s mind was a deep, dark, complicated place. It was easy to get lost in, and once you’re lost chances of getting out are slim. But if you wanted to cause damage, it’s the best place to go.

You can’t describe it easily. It wasn’t a steady place, one that held its shape- it was always shifting, changing, mutating to fit what it wanted to. Sometimes, if you were lucky, it would show up as a simple hallway, with different doors leading to your destinations, clearly labeled. If you’re unlucky, it will be a carnaval- a mess, a screaming, twisting choir, a sky of blood, a dripping moon, finger bones for grass, and the entrance into the different areas of the subconscious steep cliff edges or razorblade fields. 

Logos, the self-proclaimed genius, knew it was where the issue was coming from. When Virgil had held back, he had as well, listening in. If what Virgil said was correct, this was the most likely spot. Of course, if Virgil was correct, leading them to the correct spot might have been a good way to throw suspicion off of him.

Then again, Logos finding the spot might be his way to throw suspicion off himself as well. The probability was high, Logos decided. He needed to be careful. His secrets were his, and well, if he was the one who did this… that was definitely a big secret, one to be kept closely to his chest.

Today it seemed, the subconscious had decided on a middle ground. A maze. To Logos’ brilliant mind (once again, self-proclaimed) it was easy to work through. Without him, the other sides would surely wither. The center of the subconscious was what he was most concerned for, so he headed there. 

Well then, it seemed Virgil was correct. The middle of the subconscious, like the rest of it, could appear however it liked, and today it sent the message clear- a lock, shattered and broken on the ground. One of the sides had done this on purpose, had broken into the subconscious and shattered it from the middle. Since they had all been accountable when it had taken place, it had to have been timed, poisoned- something like that.

Frowning, Logos crouched by the shattered bits. He tried to touch the sharp shards, but his hand went through them- it was broken, and he couldn’t interact with it anymore. There was no way to fix it, not from where he was currently at least.

He stood up, brushing his clothes off. He’d been gone for half an hour, and since he’d discovered the issue it was probably in his best interests to report it now. Not doing so would only get him in trouble later on if anyone found out he’d seen the problem and still kept his mouth shut. 

He turned, but the entrance he’d come from had already closed. Not a problem for him, of course, but now it was going to take at least another twenty minutes to exit the maze if the entire thing had shifted. Well, it could be worse. 

Twenty minutes later, he stumbled out of the subconscious, and materialized back into the commons. He was the only one there, so he took a moment to be sure his clothes and attire were fine, fixing himself up. He could show nothing less than the best to the others. 

Glancing around at their spots, he summoned their presences quickly, and they popped up around him. Roman had a large smirk on his face, and Pathos was holding a slowly closing stab wound shut, glaring at Roman out of the corner of his eye. That was sure to hold consequences later. 

“Logos, did you discover something?” Deceit said after a small pause, scanning to make sure everyone was there before turning his piercing gaze to the brains of the group. Logos internally signed a bit at the question, since it’s answer was obvious, but outwardly betrayed no emotion.

Instead, he just nodded sharply. He explained what he had discovered quickly, using long words to try to make it clear, which just frustrated everyone when Logos had to re-explain parts, insulting the others for being useless idiots who should just kill themselves. Wouldn’t that make the world a much better place? They were stupid, and there was no need for idiots… but they were in Thomas’ head, and the sides just healed from any damage they got. Suicide wouldn’t work, even if they wanted it to.

“It was an inside job,” Virgil said quietly, scanning everyone with dark suspicion in his eyes. “I knew it... “ he sneered darkly. “All of you are backstabbing traitors after all.”

“Like you aren’t,” Pathos snapped at Virgil, turning his gaze towards him. He was directing his anger towards Roman in the wrong direction, and Virgil bared his teeth like an animal at the other’s action. “I know you’re a backstabber, you glitched freak, you’ve stabbed me in the back just a few days ago- plus, we all know Deceit beats you black and blue often enough, so of course you’d want to betray him. You’re my vote.” Pathos normally didn’t attack the others like this- in fact, Pathos was normally clingy, and… ‘yandere’ was the Japanese term for how Pathos treated the others. Of course, in this type of situation, that was sure to come a bit loose. 

“I wasn’t really backstabbing you then- I was, you know, trying to carve out your spine,” Virgil replied. “Besides, you took my phone. It was your own fault.” He sounded calm but sat up a bit more, hand slipping to his pocket where he kept his knife- a long trailing-point curved blade, the blade black onyx and the handle a dark wood, embedded with shards of purple gems. 

As a reply, Pathos put his hands in his own pockets- one of which held a drop-point blade, and the other which held explosives. Being blown apart took several days to regenerate, and when Pathos had discovered how slow and painful the process was, it became his favorite way to kill the other sides when they managed to piss the normally clingy and possessive side off. With their talents, it happened often. If Logos had to pick a human mental disease for Pathos, bipolar would probably fit- of course, he was no doctor. 

Roman sat up a bit, interested at the idea of a fight, and slightly disappointed that he wasn’t part of it. Not that he couldn’t join, right? He gently placed his hand on his own sword, ready to jump into the action, when Deceit raised his own hand and snapped, “continue,” in a very annoyed tone of voice.

Inwardly grinding their teeth, the three sides who had been preparing for a fight released their weapons and sat back, glancing over towards Deceit. Deceit scanned them all, and he looked upset. Not surprising. If someone really was backstabbing them like this, there was only one reason they would do so. In order to gain control of the mindscape themselves, ripping it from Deceit, the leader, the Lord.

Deceit had capes, gloves, and a hat- all huge and dramatic, his heavy large cape muddied for him to blend in, easy to pull on and off in situations. His heels were heavy with metal plating, and made loud clicking noises when he walked. His gloves had brass in them, to make his punches painful. His best feature was his scales though- they traveled all down the side of his face, and down his neck, covering his shoulder completely. 

Deceit glanced at Logos, and Logos nodded sharply, understanding the question without anything else having to be added. “In order to repair the lock, we will be required to voyage deeper into Thomas’s mind then any of us have ever gone prior,” he explained simply, blinking his dark abyss eyes at the group creepily. 

Virgil bit his lip nervously and sat up more, eyes narrowed. “Deeper?” he repeated, tilting his head a bit. “Let me guess, the deeper we get the more dangerous it gets?” Logos nodded, not picking up on the way Virgil spit the words out like they were poison, clearly drenching them in sarcasm. 

“We will have to get past Thomas’s worse fears and memories, experiences that shaped him the way he is,” Logos explained easily. “It will start off easy, and get more difficult, as Virgil has pointed out.”

“I’m King Roman,” Roman boasted, smirking and unsheathing his sword, swinging it sharply through the air. “I can best any monster! This can’t be harder then any quest I have gone on before…” 

Logos’ eyes flickered towards Roman, but dismissed him quickly, turning towards Deceit once me. “Wit beats physical strength,” he claimed as though it were fact. “We all will be required to go. All of our strengths will be needed.”

The sides didn’t spend time together, Pathos excluded (he never gave anyone an option in the matter). They just didn’t. Whenever they did, it ended in someone getting badly injured, and whenever one of them couldn’t do their work it messed up Thomas for a few days. 

Though it seemed like Thomas was in some sort of coma, from what had happened and what they had discovered so far. It made sense, why he cut off so quickly and why his mind was so quiet now. Since he was in some type of coma, they wouldn’t have to worry about him being messed up, right?

Just another reason why the traitor did this to Thomas- they didn’t want to cause lasting damage by the internal power struggle that seemed to be going on. “When do we leave?” Virgil questioned, sitting up a bit. 

Logos turned towards him. “Now, if possible,” he replied, glancing back at Deceit like always. Virgil inwardly sneered, thinking of Logos’ as a pathetic mutt running after his owner’s heals. 

Deceit nodded and narrowed his eyes at Virgil. “Unless you have something better to do..?” he questioned softly. Virgil swallowed thickly and shook his head no, forcing the words he wanted to spit at the other away.

“Well then…” Pathos smiled, clapping his hands together, eyes gleaming sadistically. “All of us together, hmm…? This will be…  _ fun _ .” Pathos’ creepy laughter filled the air, and the sides exchanged dark, threatening and untrusting looks towards each other.

Yes. So much fun.  


	3. Chapter 3

The sides never went anywhere without their weapons, and that was the only thing they ‘needed’ in this type of situation. They didn’t require things like food after all, and hopefully it didn’t take so long that they needed to worry about where to sleep. If it did take that long, they would have to try to find somewhere safe to do so. They could only hope.

Hope. It wasn’t a thing that came easily to any of them, even more so since they normally thought hope was boring. Well, crushing someone’s hope was fun, but having hope? They were aware of the truth- the universe sucked, and hope only got you excited, only for you to fail in the end. Why hope? 

Failure was always going to be the end result. Something Thomas, and therefore them, learned from  _ very _ early on. 

They crossed through the subconscious, Logos leading them, his hair as slicked back and neat as ever. He was clearly pleased at the fact that he was in front of the group this time, but the sides ignored him. They knew Logos was a psychopath, and thought he was better than any of them. (Which, of course, didn’t help with their suspicions towards him being the traitor. They were suspicious of everyone though, so it didn’t mean much).

When they bickered, Deceit normally stopped them fairly quickly, since their bickering could turn into stabbing and killing in a matter of minutes. He didn’t really care about that, but it was just a mess he had to deal with, and he’d prefer to avoid dealing with it. Still, tension was rising, and they were aware at some point Deceit’s words wouldn’t slow them down, not when they were angry enough and tense enough. This was why they tended to avoid each other.

Once they crossed through the subconscious, inky darkness swallowed them up. They all held their weapons tightly, the ebony blades invisible in the dark as though glowing with a faint light, and now tension was running even higher, but for a different reason.

None of them had ever been that deep in Thomas’ mind before. There simply wasn’t a reason to be, and it’s was too dangerous incase something could ever go wrong. Until now, that was. Now, they didn’t have a choice in the matter. 

“Well, I don’t see any monsters,” Roman huffed after a moment, glaring around in the darkness with a narrowed eyed stare. His hair was pulled back now in a small ponytail to keep the strands out of his face and eyes. While his back was turned to Pathos, Pathos stepped forwards, quickly latching onto him obsessively. Roman called out sharply and quickly tried to shake the yandere side off, but Pathos only tightened his grip, raising his knife warningly. 

_ “Be louder,” _ Deceit sneered, and Roman tensed, trembling with rage but finally managed to move away from Pathos. Pathos stood up, giggling under his breath at the ‘king’s’ rage and reaction to his blade and grip, inwardly cooing over how adorable the other was, and how much Pathos would love to carve his own name into Roman’s flesh. 

Virgil sighed, turning away from the duo and moving off. Logos frowned around the dark with him, frustrated at the lack of sight. How would they know where to go when they couldn’t see a thing? “I see a light,” Virgil suddenly said, as though reading Logos’ mind, and the sides turned towards him, squinting into the direction he was looking at.

Virgil was right. There was a small, bright light in the distance, like a floating orb emitting sunshine. As they watched it, it seemed to be growing smaller though- as if it were moving away.  _ “Ignore it,” _ Deceit commanded, standing up more, “we need to follow it.”

Deceit’s true command was obvious, and the five started after it quickly, eyes narrowed and focused on their newest target. They seemed to be catching up, as the light grew bigger. It honestly just looked like a little floating light, and just caused confusion in them. What was this small thing doing so far inside of Thomas’ mind?

They caught up to it and surrounded it, and it went still. “Pathos should touch it,” Roman offered after a pause. “If it’s deadly, we’ll still end up with a good outcome.”

“I mean if that’s what we’re trying to do, I think you should be the one to touch it,” Pathos decided, narrowing his eyes at Roman a bit. Pathos pulled at his shirt, annoyed, cracking and pulling bits of dry blood off a stained area.

Just as the two looked ready to start fighting, Pathos actually annoyed, Deceit held a hand in the air. Once more, they fell silent, but once more, tensions rose. “Virgil,” Deceit commanded, turning towards Virgil and making the nervous side tense. “You need to touch it,” Deceit finished.

The other sides snickered a bit (other than Logos of course, he was not going to lower himself to snickering like some evil cartoon villain). They didn’t know why Deceit targeted Virgil so much, giving him dangerous jobs, and hurting him when he moved out of line the slightest bit- but it was funny to them, the way Virgil was targeted and picked on.

Gritting his teeth, Virgil wavered. He didn’t want to, he was their cautious side, he was the last one who wanted to. But if he didn’t, he knew it would be worse. “Why doesn’t Pathos…?” he offered hesitantly. 

Deceit narrowed his eyes. In a swift movement he cracked his elbow into Virgil’s side, digging harshly and roughly. There was a loud crack as Virgil’s rib snapped. With a loud yelp, Virgil slid to his knees, clutching his chest and gasping soundlessly in pain.

Roman’s and Pathos’ snickering turned into laughter, while Deceit and Logos just grinned, amused. Deceit in particular seemed happy, sadistic. “Get up,” he hissed slowly, “and do what I said, now. No more arguments, or else.”

Virgil shuddered harshly, gasping growing worse. His rib was slowly shifting into place and healing itself, but it was going slowly- way too slowly, and it hurt a lot. But he didn’t want to get another of his ribs broken by refusing, so he forced himself upwards, whimpering in pain.

With one hand still wrapped around himself, he reached shakily towards the light, grasping it tightly in his palm. The world around them exploded. 

It didn’t actually explode of course, but it felt like it had- the world turned white, which was such a contrast from the darkness a moment before it had the sides covering their eyes quickly in pain. A loud ringing filled the air, just like the type you may hear if you fire a gun close to your ear, or if you’re close to an exploding bomb.

Long story short, it hurt, and sent them all down onto the ground just like Virgil had been a moment later. On the subject of Virgil, the motion hit his healing rib, making the experience even more painful for him. 

After a few moments of kneeling in general pain, the sides stirred, slowly squinting and peeling their eyes open, sitting up from the ground and looking around with wide eyes.

Pathos was the first to speak.

“Where… the hell are we?”

The forest looked familiar, but in the vaguest of ways, making it difficult to place. Like they had been there once before, long ago (perhaps as children?), but only once, despite the memory in it being important to them. Slowly, the sides climbed back onto their feet, looking around carefully, trying to observe everything as carefully as possible. Prepare for all situations after all, correct?

The trees stretched tall above them, and a few crinkly leaves dotted the ground in colours of orange, red, and yellow, showing it was the beginning of autumn in this strange mindscape. The ground directly below them was a dirt path, vanishing in between trees, but most of the ground around them was a crinkly green and yellow expanse of slowly dying grass.

The sky was blue, thought that may be obvious, and the sun was shining high, but the weather affected none of them. They truly felt like they were there though, they felt the ground, and could smell the scent of the forest. It felt real, not like some strange illusion that they first assumed it may be like.

It was strange, to a group who had been so used to being the onlookers for so long. Never able to truly journey outside of Thomas’ mind, but suddenly cast in such a large forest, in such an amazing recreation of the outside world.

Virgil was the first to draw his knives out, always prepared for a fight. The movement made him flinch slightly. His rib was just finishing healing, but it still ached a bit- nothing compared to other pain he’d received though, so he managed to force himself through the slight aching. The others followed along with his actions of preparing to fight (after glancing at Deceit, of course). “Is a forest normal?” Pathos asked, stepping forwards on the path a few feet, peering as far as he could see. It was just… more path. “This deep in his mind I mean! It’s Thomas- I expected, like, monsters and dead bodies and stuff.”

Logos didn’t answer, looking away, making Roman and Virgil raise an eyebrow. Normally, Logos was happy to jump up and show how he was so much smarter compared to the rest of them, but this time he decided to remain quiet…?

Suddenly, they all heard a movement behind them and turned quickly. The path stretched behind them just like it did in front, and they knew no one and nothing was there a moment ago, and no one would have been able to approach without them hearing. But despite these facts, there he was- Thomas.

Not the Thomas they all knew today though. A younger version of Thomas. The young Thomas had Thomas’ brown hair, and his deep eyes, wore the tattered clothes he had worn as child, with scrapes on his knees and a lonely glint in his eyes. He was clutching something stained in red in his arms- a rabbit, stabbed through its fur. He was standing still, just blankly staring forwards, as if he was frozen in place of the memory. That’s when the memory clicked in the sides’ mind, and they knew where it had come from.

“Thomas’ first kill!” Pathos yelled, a grin suddenly ripping its way across his face as he straightened, twitching sharply. Excitement and happiness ran across his expression quickly.

Roman grinned as well, just as wide and bloodthirsty as Pathos. “We were in school- grade two,” the creative side remembered. “We… saw the rabbit outside in the back. The teacher brought a knife to cut her food with, so we grabbed the knife and killed it at recess.”

Virgil frowned a bit. He remembered that day. He remembered how excited Thomas had been as the need to peel off the creatures flesh and show off the blood bubbling beneath had taken over. How he had been so excited to show it to his new friend- a young, non-binary child named Joan.

He remembered how Joan had never hung out with Thomas again, how they had screamed and ran for the teacher crying. Thomas ran off into the forest, the tears starting to fall- he had buried the rabbit under a large tree, and then struggled to wash the blood off in the nearby river before stumbling before stumbling back to school.

He remembered how it hadn’t worked, they knew the truth, and the looks they had given Thomas. Thomas, who had been curious, his morality not yet developed, Thomas who had watched too many horror movies. Thomas who had no friends, and saw a chance to try something no one had ever tried before to impress his first one. Sure it had been messed up, but Thomas’ childhood… he hadn’t known, and after that, it didn’t matter. He was too late, and the loneliness got worse, and soon he didn’t care. The beginning of how Thomas’ had become who he was today. 

Virgil looked at the other sides again, but they didn’t seem to remember that at all. “That day was unfortunate,” Logos said quietly, and Virgil wondered if maybe he remembered a bit of it. But it was more likely he just remembered them being caught, not the sentimental stuff. It wasn’t that Virgil cared, it was just… 

He knew that day had been one of the turning points in Thomas’ life, and to see it presented in a still staring child, arms dripping with blood and fluids, was unnerving. On the subject of the blood, there was no way all the blood dripping from Thomas’ arms could have ever actually fit inside the rabbit- there was so much of it, too much, as it soaked into the child’s shirt and created puddles as it pooled down on the dirt below.

Deceit narrowed his eyes at Thomas. “Do we kill him?” he wondered out loud. Virgil sent him a sharp look. Killing someone who looked exactly like Thomas in Thomas’ mind sounded like it would do more harm than good, really.

Roman tightened his grip on the earlier drawn black blade in answer, but before he could move forwards, Logos raised his hand. His own thoughts mirrored Virgil’s in this situation. “That seems unwise-”

Growling, Roman turned, pointing the sword towards Logos instead, a broken glint in his eyes. “That seems unwise,” he repeated back quickly in a mocking tone, sneering in reply. “All you’ve done is boss us around, if you have something to say, why don’t you do some of the work for once!”

Virgil narrowed his eyes, inching forwards and sneering at the king. “Just because we aren’t all trigger happy lunatics like you,” he drawled sharply, eyes dark, “doesn’t mean we aren’t trying to help, you spoiled monarch.” 

Roman moved in a flash, sword slamming towards Virgil, and Virgil only avoided having his face slashed in half by a second, darting out of the way. Logos could have easily pulled Virgil away from Roman’s line of strike, but he was too busy keeping care of himself. Pathos frowned a bit, his protectiveness of the other sides stirring. 

“We’re off track-  _ not at all distracted,” _ Deceit said, his weapon, a sickle slamming upwards and blocking Roman’s second strike. Pathos, who had just been about to step in, relax with a tiny snarl. “We will attempt to kill the child. These are my orders, and that’s final.” 

Roman smirked at Logos and Virgil, as if he was so sure he had won. Logos was tense in fury, and Virgil was planning ways to kill Roman inwardly. Even if he didn’t have the chance to go through with his plans, it was still going to be fun to think about. Virgil and Pathos made eye contact, and Virgil remembered that Pathos was also planning some type revenge against the king, from when Roman had stabbed Pathos earlier in the day. Maybe they would be able to help each other out- the only time the sides ever worked together, when they were planning to hurt another side.

Logos glanced at the child- and his eyes narrowed. “The child,” he warned, making all the sides turn quickly. Thomas was gone, and the rabbit was laying limply on the floor, the blood bubbling quicker and quicker, making a river of sticky red. 

Pathos was closest now, and he stepped forwards before any of them could react, grabbing the rabbit and picking it up. It bled faster, adding more red stains to Pathos’ clothes, not that he seemed to really care. Turning it around, Pathos looked it over, but it just looked like a normal (dead) rabbit. 

“Pathos-” Deceit started to say, voice tight with rage from being ignored. Then the rabbit blink and moved. 

Tensing, Pathos tried to drop the rabbit, but it opened its mouth quickly and sank its teeth into his flesh, holding on. From the tiny glimpse they had seen, they weren’t normal teeth either- rows and rows of razor sharp fangs, something a rabbit really shouldn’t have!

“Fuck!” Pathos swung his arms, trying to dislodge it as its claws slid out of its paws like a cat, claws latching into his skin just as quickly. Pathos’ own blood started to mix with the rabbits, and the side was unable to grab any of his weapons because of the animal’s position, even as Pathos screech in a mix of pain and rage.

The other sides watched in surprise and amusement for a moment, but then Deceit stepped forwards, recognizing the rabbit was dangerous to all of them, and sunk his sickle directly into the rabbit. Judging from Pathos’ loud cry of pain, the sickle had entered his flesh as well, but it would be difficult to avoid Pathos, even if he wanted to which, let’s be honest, he didn’t, considering how closely wound up he was with the creature.

The creature could hardly be considered a rabbit now. Deceit’s attack made it release Pathos, dropping to the ground, but the sickle seemed to be stuck like glue, due to how Deceit’s eyes widened when he tugged harshly on the handle and the blade didn’t slide out.

The creature, other than releasing Pathos, who stumbled back and stared at his bloody torn up arms and hands in disgust and pain, didn’t seem too bothered by the sickle protruding from it. Its flesh bubbled off disgustingly, revealing muscles and bones, and it started to grow, limbs bulging and shifting, bones cracking and razor teeth sliding outwards into huge fangs.

When it finally stopped growing, it was as tall as the trees, or even taller maybe, with huge fangs, red stained white fur, wide pink eyes, and long limbs, like a  _ huge _ dog or wolf, some sort of canine creature. It’s back rippled, and the sickle snapped, breaking out of it’s skin, it’s gaze finally stopping to rest on them.

The sides swallowed. So then, their first obstacle was a large, misshapen, mutant… rabbit? 


	4. Chapter 4

Deceit glared at his broken sickle for a moment, annoyed, but with a wave of his fingers the broken weapon flew back into his hand, whole once more. Luckily, they were still in Thomas’ mind, and therefore they were able to bend the rules of reality. It was like a dream; they could all manipulate it, with varying degrees of success. Roman and Deceit were the best at it though as creativity and the leader. 

Those thoughts aside, they had an issue here- a clear one, that is the giant monstrous…. bunny. Backing away, the sides, Pathos excluded, held their respective weapons in tight grips, eyes locked forwards on the beast in front of them.

It was sniffing around, seeming to gain its bearing of where it was, giving them a chance to talk and plan. They could only hope it would be a moment before the rabbit focused back on them, long enough for them to really figure out what the hell to do. 

“Weapons don’t seem to pierce it,” Logos pointed out, holding up his weapon. It was a gun, not one that could be found in real life, but the closet version was probably the 44 Magnum handgun. It could shoot different types of bullets, normal bullets, exploding bullets, poison bullets, to name a few. “I doubt my gun will be much help. Pathos, do you still have explosives?”

Pathos snorted hysterically at the question. His hands were healing nicely, deep gashes fading to shallow cuts, the bruises around them fading back to normal shades of skin. “Of course I do,” he sighed, glancing at Roman as if he wished to throw one at him instead, still upset from earlier. Virgil followed the gaze and almost wished Pathos could. 

“It may pierce the beast’s outer flesh,” Deceit caught on. “Then, we’ll be able to hurt the exposed areas-”

The beast swept it’s paw down and caught Deceit in the chest, throwing him against a tree with a nastuating cracking noise. There was a wet cry of pain, and then silence. The sides scattered at the beast swept again, this time close to Roman- Roman sliced his weapon, but it pretty much bounced off the beast’s flesh, since it hadn’t yet been opened, exposed for their weapons to injure.

Hands finally stable enough, Pathos reached into his pocket, pulling out one of his explosives after Logos shouted at him, alerting him to that fact. In a moment he activated it and threw it at the beast. 

Before it made contant, the beast swiped it away again, off into the forest, where it exploded in the distance. Deceit hadn’t gotten back up yet, so it was starting to look like the four would have to face this fight without their leader. “We have to distract it,” Virgil realized, shouting his thoughts quickly.

Logos nodded in agreement, glancing at Pathos. “Sneak behind it, aim and throw towards the back or chest if possible,” he ordered quickly. Pathos grinned, teeth grinding together and ripping some of the inside of his mouth open, causing blood to leak from in between his teeth and down onto his lips, staining them blood red. 

Turning, Logos and Virgil glanced at Roman. As the self-proclaimed king, he seemed to most logical choice, and since Logos had already come up with a plan it was their expectation that Roman would be excited to lead them through it. But Roman was… running away into the forest? “Roman!” Virgil yelled, disgust and rage coating his tone.

Really though, he shouldn’t be surprised. Saving yourself and leaving the others to die was an activity all the sides had partaken in before. But this wasn’t just the sides- this was Thomas. Thomas who was in trouble, Thomas who they all wanted to save, because they  _ were _ Thomas. Saving Thomas was the same thing as saving themself in this type of situation. 

Logos and Virgil looked at each other, neither of them good fighters in this type of situation. They could hold their own in a fight against another person, Logos able to read their moves and mental state and use his silver tongue even more than his weapons, Virgil being the same way if a bit more capable of physical fighting. 

A good way to explain it was if they were going to kill someone, neither of them would actually do the killing, though if they really wanted to they probably could. Logos would plan the murder, and Virgil would help to make sure no tracks were left behind- no way to get caught. Even now, Virgil constantly carried bandages on his person, and Logos, if anything, carried his own brain everything. 

The moment of lost concentration cost them. The beast aimed for Virgil, and it’s teeth snapped around his shoulder and part of his arm and neck. For a moment Virgil’s world went black and he screamed in pain, as the beast tore back, sending Virgil to the ground. He blacked out a moment later, unable to see what had happened.

Logos sighed. Now it was just him, since the beast biting off Virgil’s arm had caused the anxious side to fall unconscious- not a huge surprise though, it was to be expected after that type of injury. Logos turned to the beast and shot, not having much hope, but not prepared to give up just now. As expected, the bullet did nothing except annoy the beast and make it turn towards him, snarling louder, it’s mouth stained with Virgil’s blood. Logos swallowed deeply, and aimed again, firing towards the mouth. This time it collided with a tooth, the force enough to shatter it.

The beast made a sound, a loud screeching noise, his eyes darkening even more. Logos hissed, covering his ears in pain- it was a good survival tactic, but he didn’t appreciate it being used against him. Logos rarely felt emotion. It just wasn’t something he did. But even he was starting to feel the trickles of fear.

The beast swiped at him and he moved out of the way, but he was getting tired, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to last much longer. 

That’s when Roman was back. Roman, unlike what had been believed, hadn’t actually ran away. He had climbed a tree. Which may not make any sense, but despite what Logos would say, Roman firmly considered himself smart as well. At the very least, he was when it came to killing, and he was creative. 

The only part of the beast that could be injured were its eyes. Fleshy organs on the outside, vulnerable to hits and attacks. If he could climb a tree and jump on it’s back, he just needed to use his sword to blind the creature. That would give Pathos a chance to explode it, and then he could stab through where it’s missing skin would be, hopefully piercing through another organ. This time, said organ being the creature’s heart.

Watching in amusement as Virgil got his arm ripped off, only disappointed that the side had fallen unconscious before he had a chance to be in any real pain, Roman climbed a tree quickly after placing his sword back into his belt, leaving him with two free hands. He had to wait for the beast too get close enough to jump on it’s back, but as Logos moved away, leading the beast further into an expanse of trees, it gave him the perfect chance.

Roman jumped, and almost missed. Grabbing onto nasty clotted furr, he scrambled with his feet, digging them into the smelly flesh of the beast, pushing himself upwards and onto it’s back. When the creature made that horrifying noise again he had to force himself not to yell and cover his ears, which would definitely cause him to fall. 

“King Roman has you now!” he yelled proudly, scrambling forwards to its neck. It tried to buck him off, shaking like a wet dog, but Roman gripped tightly with his knees, clenching his fists into the furr. He was forced to let go with one hand to draw his sword out again, and the creature almost managed to throw him off- his hand slipped and his knees went upwards, but he threw his weight forwards to avoid it.

He was forced to half-stand, operating on only faith in himself (because he’s a king, and very amazing one of course) to lean forwards. Eyes snapped upwards, revealing milky white stained with bulging red veins. The smell he had first whiffed when jumping onto the creature grew stronger, and Roman gagged sharply. It was like rot and mold. 

This was his chance though. He bent at his waist, leaning over in between its ears, raising his sword in a way that really wasn’t proper but necessary, and sliced deeply into those nasty shiny eyes. The creature screamed, at the same time Roman yelled, “Pathos NOW!”

He wasn’t sure if Pathos (who had been hiding and waiting behind the beast like ordered) heard him through the creature’s wails, and a moment later Roman was dislodged from the creature, flying through the air and landing on the ground hard. He landed on his legs, and they shattered on impact, Roman screaming in pain as he toppled, the edges of his sight going black.

Pathos hadn’t heard Roman’s call, but he had recognized the opening and had thrown. He timed it just right, and the creature couldn’t see and therefore couldn’t bat it away, so it hit its back and exploded, the smell making Pathos and Logos (the only ones awake and not badly injured) gag in disgust.

Roman wasn’t on the creatures back anymore and couldn’t stab through the opening, but it was fine- the creature fell to its side, and Logos was able to switch his bullets to the exploding ones earlier while Roman was blinding the beast. With said exploding bullets, Logos aimed, and fired. Another explosion went off, inside the beast this time, exploding the creature’s heart.

In a blink, the creature was gone, as if it had never been there in the first place, and everything seemed normal- the sky bright blue, the sun shining down, the trees swaying with the breeze. All was normal, even the three sides laying in varying degrees of pain. 

Fifteen minutes later, Logos had the three injured sides laying off the side of the road, and looked over them with a frown. Pathos was hovering nearby, smiling cheerfully, and singing under his breath. “In a dark room, in cold sheets, I can’t feel, a damn thing,” he sung under his breath.

“Stop singing,” Logos muttered, frowning at the three laying in front of him. Pathos frowned but shrugged and moved forwards, standing next to him and gazing at the three sleeping sides as well.

Poking Roman with his foot, Pathos sighed. “How long are we going to have to wait for?” he asked, well, more like whined, softly. 

Logos glanced over them all again and sighed. “Virgil will take the longest,” he decided. “He’ll be at least two days, but he should wake up and be able to walk in around twelve hours. Deceit will be fine in an hour, and Roman even less- they just shattered some bones, and my prediction is that Deceit ruptured an organ, but neither of those is as severe as losing an arm.”

Pathos looked at Virgil again, and his cheerful expression finally faded, replaced by a frown instead. “So we’ll be here awhile,” he said after a moment. Logos nodded in reply, making Pathos sigh dramatically again but sit down. Logos sat down a moment afterwards, both looking up to watch the sky.

“What an amazing start~”

“I can’t tell if you are using ‘sarcasm’ or not.”

“Hehehe… neither can I.” 


	5. Chapter 5

Roman was very annoyed at having his ‘moment of fame’ stolen away from him when he woke up, yelling at Logos and Pathos for a solid five minutes before a fight between the three broke out. 

When Deceit woke up, it was to an annoying sight. Logos was slumped against a tree, chest slit open, gun held tightly in his hand, while Roman was slumped over the ground, sword limply held by his side and legs riddled in bullet holes. Pathos throat had been sliced open, leaving him to bleed out, but the slit had already closed- now he was just dizzy from blood loss.

All in all, it was just more recovery time. Since their original plan was to wait for Virgil to wake up, it didn’t matter to the others if they had to spare a few moments themself to heal. They would still be waiting for the same amount, since Virgil would be taking longer than them most likely since injuries from each other wouldn’t compare to having your arm ripped off.

But despite the other sides making the decision to wait, Deceit probably didn’t care even if they just left Virgil behind to rot. It wouldn’t make any difference to him, he didn’t even  like Virgil.

After snarling at the sides for their stupidity (and honestly just taking some of his rage out on them), Deceit tore the bullets quickly out of Roman and left them to heal. By the time they were better, when Deceit looked about ready to kill himself from sheer boredom, Virgil stirred, starting to wake.

Virgil’s side, raw from where his arm had been torn away, wasn’t bleeding. A tissue was covering the torn areas, forming into new skin and muscle, and a weird growth was already in place where his new arm was bound to grow. All in all though, the process was inwardly painful, and he woke up already gasping in pain from the sensation, and cursing his luck.

Why was he always the one who ended up with the worst injuries? Did it have to do with Deceit hating him, or was he just unlucky? “Are you awake?” Virgil peeled his eyes opened, looking up. Pathos had noticed Virgil stirring and perked up, moving over to lean down over him and try to question the limp side. When Virgil’s eyes opened slightly, he grinned, standing up all the way. “Deceit, Virgil’s awake,” he called out quickly, sounding delighted by this information as he turned on his heel towards their leader.

Deceit looked up, standing quickly and moving over at the sound of his name. Frowning, Deceit glanced over Virgil. “Get up now,” Deceit said after accessing how his healing was going. “If you don’t move,  _ we won’t leave you behind,  _ so I suggest you start walking.”

Virgil’s eyes widened a bit. They were going to leave him behind if he couldn’t walk with them? Just laying there hurt, he could hardly move. The pain that filled him, that coursed through him, was bad enough already, walking with it felt like it would be nearly impossible. If there was a fight like the one they just had, it could kill him!

But he could hardly wait there. He might never get out, he had no idea where he even was. The monster could come back, and Virgil would be the only one there. He swallowed thickly, imagining it- being torn into bloody pieces, again and again and again. He couldn’t even imagine it, the pain, the fear. 

He didn’t have a choice. Deceit watched, smiling in sweet amusement as Virgil forced himself to sit up, biting back tears and pain as he scrambled upwards onto his feet. He steadied himself against a tree with his one working arm, looking over at the two sides that hadn’t yet spoken.

Roman was sitting against a tree, but stood up as Virgil did, grinning when he took the anxious side in. “Aw,” he cooed, tilting his head to the side, running his eyes up and down Virgil. Virgil shuddered at the feeling of being disected. “This will be fun,” Roman added, snickering, the king’s sadism freely flowing. 

Logos hardly reacted to Virgil’s state other than glancing over and carefully checking up on his injury, inwardly cataloguing him for later on fights. Pathos seemed a bit pissed off with Virgil’s injuries, eyes darkening as a twitch ran down the giggly sides body. Still, they both stayed quiet.

Deceit sighed, stepping away from Virgil and into the center of their group with a small crazed laugh. “Virgil is slowing us down,” he started, making Virgil scowl. Yes, because he had wanted this, completely. He had woken up with the intent to slow them down as much as possible, of course. “If anyone else makes a mistake, they will not be allowed to continue on with us,  _ and will not be left behind.” _

It was a threat, and not a small one either. Like Virgil had already deduced, being left behind in a place like this? Who knew what could happen. It had taken all of them to beat the memory they had accidently ran into, one of them alone would be doomed for failure. The others seemed to pick up on it as well, even though it took a moment for a few of them, but they all exchanged nervous looks at the thought. 

(Other then Logos, of course. Logos didn’t do ‘nervous.’)

“Okay,” Roman said slowly, stretching his arms above his head. He lowered them after a moment, resting one of his hands on the handle of his sword once more. “What now then?”

Deceit was quiet, and made a gesture that indicated he wanted them to speak. Roman internally laughed. Deceit didn’t want to do any of the dirty work, huh? He wanted them to plan everything out for him… the king inwardly rolled his eyes after his original amusement. Deceit, in his eyes, wasn’t the best leader. “We could go back to where we came from,” Pathos offered, pointing back to the path. “Maybe a new light will appear, taking us somewhere else.”

“Or maybe we’ll reset our progress and have to fight that creature again,” Virgil snapped before anyone else had a chance to, his anxiety and quick thinking acting up.

Roman narrowed his eyes at Virgil. He remembered how well Pathos’ bomb had blown up said creature, and imagined how it would look blowing up Virgil. How his guts would splatter everywhere, covering the sides in pretty scarlet, cracked bone raining down on them like snow. “Do you have a better idea?”

Virgil gave him a look like it was obvious, and, still trying to ignore the firey pain in his shoulder and upper chest in general, even as he decided to take a different approach. “When you’re off on your kingly adventures, which way do you go?” he demanded.

The king in question frowned softly, surprised at being suddenly put on the spot; not that he was complaining, said king loved attention. “Forwards, of course,” he said, looking further down the dirt path. Virgil’s meaning clicked in his head, and his eyes shone.

Logos nodded slowly. “I believe Virgil’s train of thought is correct,” he spoke, clasping his hands together gently. “Of course, the final decision is not up to our minds. Deceit?” They all turned to Deceit, hoping for a better answer then a wave of his fingers and a ‘keep talking.’ 

Deceit nodded slowly.  _ “We will go backwards,” _ he decided, and Virgil smirked a bit at being right, standing up just a bit taller. The motion sent more pain through him though, and he hissed softly, slouching again, trying to avoid looking at his… stub, that once was his arm. It was a bit disturbing to see. 

Pathos crossed his arms over his chest like an annoyed child, trembling gently in his own rage at having his own suggestions ridiculed and pushed away. Breathing in slowly, he tried to fight the urge to go into a murderous rage and cut all the other sides into little bits. A chainsaw, maybe, would do the job very nicely. He didn’t mind, since they wouldn’t die, and then he could carry the pieces around everywhere, and they would be with him forever! But four against one would never go well, and probably just peg him as the traitor, and, well… if he was the traitor, he wasn’t stupid enough to make it obvious like that.

“So we go forwards,” Roman muttered. The sides silently moved back onto the dirt road, the ones that had been conscious the longest glad to finally be moving. They took another short pause to glance around, unwilling to leave any bit of evidence behind in case they missed anything before they continued on forwards.

The dirt road was longer than they thought it would be. Then it grew longer. Then longer. “It’s been almost two hours,” Pathos finally hissed, clenching his hands into fists. “Think we should have taken my suggestion yet?”

He was ignored, but he was glared at. “This could be a tactic,” Logas offered. “If we turn now and continue on backward, only to learn of such deceit, we would have wasted valuable time heading back.”

“We’re going to lose valuable time heading forwards at this rate,” Pathos snapped in reply, twitching in his barely suppressed rage.

The two glared at each other for a long moment, both tense in their own ways, and unwilling to break the eye contact of their staring contest. “Why don’t we split up?” Roman offered. He was walking behind, swinging his sword around in large arks. Normally Virgil liked to walk behind, in order to protect his own back. But he couldn’t push for that spot if Roman didn’t want to give it up, not in his condition.

“Have you ever read a book or movie?” Virgil demanded, amused by the proposed idea. “Splitting up is like, the worst way to go.” Roman shot him an annoyed look, twitching. His next sword slice was a bit too close to Virgil for comfort and swallowing, Virgil stepped forwards, more out of sword range.

Clearing his throat, Roman snapped, “do you have a better idea? If not, go slit your wrists and die, instead of whining and whimpering and complaining to me.”

Virgil sneered a bit. “I only have one wrist,” he pointed out snidely, looking down at the wrist in question.

Roman raised an eyebrow. “If you want some help with your suicide, all you need to do is ask, Virgil.”

“Maybe we should split up,” Pathos muttered under his breath. The bickering duo turned towards him, frowning. Breathing in, Pathos looked up and looked at Deceit, who was in front. “Deceit..? You’ve been quiet. What do you think?”

Deceit stopped suddenly, making all the sides scramble to stop, some of them bumping into each other from the suddenness. The contact made them snarl and growl at each other, annoyed by the touching, but they remained still as Deceit spun to face them. Frowning, Deceit looked them over, brushing some hair from his face with a sneer.

_ “I don’t agree,” _ he said shortly, glancing away. “Let’s split up. This idea isn’t working that well, Logos… and you’re supposed to be the smart one.  _ Clearly, you are.” _ Finally, Pathos lightened up a bit, glad the idea he had backed was being listened to this time. “Pathos and Logos will go backward, while Virgil, Roman, and I will go forward,” Deceit decided.

Virgil frowned. Why did Deceit always stick them together? Was he planning to bother him more? Hurt him more? Even with Virgil’s injury? At least he was going forward, he didn’t want to have to walk backward for two hours.

“If we find something, how will we contact you?” Logos inquired, pushing his glasses up a bit. He was frowning at what Deceit had said but wisely kept his mouth shut on the topic.

Before Deceit had a chance to reply, Roman smiled brilliantly, and produced fireworks from his pockets, passing a few to Logos. “We can just set these off,” he explained quickly, “it will do the job, then we’ll have to wait for the other group to catch up, but… well, Thomas isn’t going anywhere.”

They all frowned at the reminder. They didn’t really like thinking about what it was Thomas could be going through right now, no more then they liked thinking about what awaited them further down the path. After all, yes Thomas was in a coma. But had someone found him? They assumed he was in a hospital, and since a doctor couldn’t know what was truly going on in Thomas’s head, they could diagnose and try to treat it in any way they wanted. Even if said doctor just made it worse, since like already decided, the doctor really couldn’t understand what was truly going on. It was just… bad thoughts they preferred to avoid, really. 

But they knew Roman’s words held truth, and they nodded in reply. “We need to hurry up and start now,” Deceit snapped, eyes narrowing more. “We’re pressed for time,  _ so we clearly have lots of time to relax.” _

Yes, because relaxing was exactly what all of them were trying to do. Virgil very carefully didn’t roll his eyes, not wanting to set Deceit off on him. That was one of the last things he wanted actually...

The two groups split up at last, Logos and Pathos turning backward and starting back down the path, while the king, the leader, and the injured continued on forwards, towards wherever that may or may not lead.

There was another hour of walking before the group of three saw two figures ahead of them on the path. Tensing, they drew out their weapons- looking closer, the two figures seemed to be pulling out weapons as well. “Should we set off the firework?” Virgil demanded, holding his knife awkwardly with his one hand.

_ “Yes,” _ Deceit decided, shaking his head no. “We should try to deal with them. We shouldn’t just go get help and run away right away. Unlike you, we’re not cowards.” Virgil frowned, he wasn’t a coward, he was careful. Besides, not exactly what he meant, but alright then.

As they got closer to the two figures, they were slowly filled with confusion instead. Because the two people approaching them looked exactly like Logos and Pathos. As in, it was them, or someone disguised as them to the tiniest details, like the bullet holes in Logos’ clothes or the exact same bloodstains on Pathos.

They stopped within talking distance, but not striking distance, too wary of each other. “How did you get in front of us?” Virgil asked, body tense, as he squeezed the knife tighter in his hand.

Logos and Pathos exchanged looks. “How did you get behind us?” Pathos replied, eyes narrowing. There was a moment of tense, unsure silence.

Logos made a tiny noise, and instantly all eyes were on him. “It’s a loop,” he muttered, eyes wide. “If you walk backward, you just end up in front- or, likewise, if you walk forwards, you’ll end up behind. I’d compare it to a circle, perhaps?”

His words were confusing and took a moment for all of them to understand. When it did, the issue was pretty clear though. On a circle, no matter which way you walk, you can’t get off of the circle, you’ll just go around and around for eternity no matter how long you try.

Which meant… they were trapped.


	6. Chapter 6

All things considered, they weren’t idiots. They knew there was an easy way out of this trap- go through the forest instead, escape the path, see how it goes. It was obvious in retrospect, but after facing the giant monster bunny, they were a bit hesitant to go running through the forest at top speed searching for a way out. Who knows what else could be in there.

At the very least they wanted to attempt to find a way out in a logical sense at first, only turning towards fighting or giving into dangerous options later on if they absolutely needed to. But after half an hour of trying to think of a better plan, they started to get annoyed and considered the leaving the path idea more.

They had been in the forest for over twelve hours, at least fourteen hours, since Virgil had taken about twelve hours to wake up after the... bunny problem. That meant that Thomas had been in some sort of coma (as they were speculating) for twelve hours, and the longer Thomas stayed in said coma, the more worried the sides became. They weren’t sure if there was a time-limit on this or not, but all they could really do at this point is hope really hard that there wasn’t one. If there was, and the time-limit ended, then what?

“We’ve been trying to come up with one of your ‘logical’ plans and it’s not working!” Roman was the first to snap, but it looked like Pathos, at the very least, agreed. Deceit was always hard to understand, so his opinion wasn’t clear. He was good at hiding his emotions, faking emotions, things about emotions in general. Maybe it came with the ‘lying’ package. 

Logos frowned, twitching slightly as if he wanted nothing more then to shove a knife into Roman’s head and shut him up forever. “Logical solutions take time to form,” he declared. “Scientists started thinking about atomic theories back in 400BC, and they  _ still  _ have not received a clear picture.”

Virgil glanced at Logos in surprise. Normally he referred to past murderers as references, if he had to stretch and use a science reference instead, he was probably getting upset as well. Upset was maybe an over-exaggeration. Virgil wasn’t sure if he was capable of many emotions, but Logos’ mind was probably buzzing with information and ideas, that was safe to assume at least. 

“If it takes that long, I think I’ll test out cannibalism,” Pathos deciding, glaring up at the sky with anger. Despite them being there for twelve hours, it didn’t seem like the time of day had changed even slightly. “As long as that bunny doesn’t come back, maybe it won’t be too bad…?”

“It would be great,” Deceit said dryly, staring at Pathos like he was stupid. It was a look Pathos received often.  _ “Unbearable, until the doctors decide to never pull Thomas’ plug. Am I right?” _

Pathos translated the message. If Thomas didn’t wake up, he would be assumed to be gone, and then his plug would be pulled. Then, Thomas really would be gone, taking the five of them with him. “So, do you agree with my plan then?” Roman asked hopefully. He wasn’t nervous about the woods like them; if anything, he was itching to go in there and start slicing up some monsters.

Deceit frowned at Roman. He still didn’t think going into the forest was a smart idea, but like he had told Pathos, they couldn’t take forever to come up with a different idea, and then spend the time to go through with it. They had to make a move sooner or later, and if that move just happened to be entering the forest of decided death and doom, it was a risk they would have to take. It wasn’t like they could really die for real.

“I suppose we have no choice but to follow Roman’s idea,” Deceit spoke, sending ripples of conflicting emotion through the sides. “Virgil? How’s your arm?” Deceit grinned, shifting his attention to Virgil and rolling his shoulders, suddenly playful. That was never a good sign.

Virgil narrowed his eyes. His arm was… growing. Slowly. If he had to guess, he’d say it was about a quarter way there. But really, having this big of a handicap was making him nervous, even more so with them now entering the forest. “It’s fine,” he bit out, not about the reveal how much it actually hurt, and how scared he truly was. Showing weakness would be retarded in this situation. 

Deceit stood up, and threw his arms out dramatically, making Roman grin a bit, as he also jumped up with a flourish. Pathos stood up with a shark like grin, while Logos was the only one who stood up calmly, leaving Virgil to struggle to his feet. “Then you wouldn't mind leading us?” Deceit questioned ever so innocently.

So now Deceit wanted the mostly armless side with slow instincts who was in a lot of pain to walk in front. Pathos muffled a tiny giggle, amused at how Virgil seemed to be in the process of being used as some type of meat suit. “I… don’t think that’s a good idea-” Virgil stopped talking at Deceit’s raised eyebrow. He knew when to keep his mouth shut, so he shut it tightly and nodded sharply. 

Instinct made them all draw their respective weapons before they entered the forest, to eliminate even the slightest wait time that pausing to take out their weapons would steal from them in the case of an attack. With a toothy grin, Deceit gestured for Virgil to go on ahead. Virgil did so, but his jaw was clenched tightly, and it was clear he wasn’t happy with this situation. 

The sides all followed behind Virgil. The forest was denser than they thought it would be. The trunks of the trees were thick and close together, tough wood turning to thin branches and green leaves above their heads. The ground was dry reddish colored dirt, but vines and bushes often popped up with their paths, thorns glittering in the gentle light that streamed through the trees above.

Virgil had to work his way through it all, using his knife to shove aside branches and cut through vines as best as he could. Deceit was walking directly behind him, and whenever he started to grow annoyed with Virgil taking too long, he shoved him, sending him stumbling forwards, trying to ignore the agonizing pain it sent up his arm.

All he wanted to do was turn and shove his knife into Deceit’s head up to its hilt, but even if he could manage before Deceit reacted, the other three would turn on him in a second. 

What happened next is something Virgil would have called karma, if it wasn’t for the fact that he was hurt from it as well. Virgil had run into a huge area of bush and was having problems cutting his way through it. This time, before Deceit even had a chance to touch him, Roman stepped up from the back of the group, sending everyone stumbling forwards a bit in order to shove Virgil forwards.

It was a domino effect. They all fell, and instead of hitting the ground, they kept falling. One moment, they could all see trees and grass, and the in the next moment they were following down a hole. They reacted in various degrees of horrified yelps. They were falling quickly, and only gaining speed, and under them was only darkness.

“If this is a bottomless pit, I’m going to spend the rest of my eternally falling life carving you into little bits over and over again!” Pathos screeched at Roman, eyes full of horror and rage.

It wasn't a bottomless pit, because a moment later, they hit the bottom.

~

Logos felt the hard ground under him, painful on his back. Shifting, he cracked his eyes open, slowly sitting up and glancing around. Around him, the others were sitting up, groaning in pain as well. Slowly, the logical side looked down at himself. His clothes were stained with blood, bits of dry organ, and probably a few other things that may come out of you after hitting a ground that far from that high up. 

The conclusion came to him easily. “How long were we out?” Pathos asked, once he spotted Virgil’s arm, which was fully healed. Virgil was flexed his arm, staring at it with wide eyes, relief finally shimmering in his eyes. The one good thing (in Virgil’s mind) that came out of this mess.

Logos felt his chest and throat tighten. “Long enough for our broken bodies to completely reconstruct,” he said softly. “However long that would take.”

Roman swallowed thickly. “I’m guessing that would be a long while,” he said slowly, and Logos didn’t feel the need to answer. In his mind, the response to that question was obvious. Logos slowly picked himself off the floor, feeling no pain. If a side got damage bad enough, their body would go in their own mini coma until they could heal fully, and it was clear that was the case.

“This is your fault,” Virgil snarled, turning towards Roman quickly. After his relief had vanished, it had been replaced quickly with anger. “If you hadn’t-”

“We would have fallen in anyways!” Roman denied. He placed a hand on his belt, where his sword had returned to. All of their weapons were back in their usual places, as they reset themselves if lost. “We were walking directly towards it, and none of us were planning to slow down anyway time soon.”

Deceit, who had been watching them all in a dangerous silence until now, cleared his throat harshly. Eyes turned towards him. He looked, to put it simply, pissed.  _ “I would hate to tear you all into little bloody pieces right now,” _ he said slowly, making the sides tense. One thing they knew, was that Deceit wouldn’t allow a ‘healing coma.’ “But. If we’ve really been asleep, healing, for who knows how long…”

Virgil went pale. If Thomas had friends and a loving family, the entire thing would be different, but as it was, Thomas was alone. No friends or family to be found, no one to pay for Thomas or make sure the doctors weren’t going to do something stupid. Like pulling the plug.

“We have to move,” Pathos whispered, looking sick. “Now.” The sides nodded. Anger had fled, replaced by the simple instinct all creatures shared. The instinct to live. “What are you even looking for?” Pathos demanded, turning to Logos. “You said we have to go deep into Thomas’ mind to find a way to repair Thomas, but how deep? You never told us exactly what we’re trying to find, here.”

“Descending into an  aperture will bring us an extensive amount downwards I would say,” Logos replied, eyes flickering towards Pathos. He kept his body positioned towards Deceit though, recognizing him as the bigger threat. “I…” Logos frowned. “What we are searching for will become clear when we arrive at the correct destination.”

Logos didn’t know. That became clear to them in a moment, making their fragile hope sink even deeper than before. If Logos didn’t even know what it was, the smart, intelligent side who seemed to know everything...

They had wandered into the darkness, been swallowed by a light, almost eaten by a crazed rabbit, trapped in an eternal looped pathway, forced to stumble through a forest, before falling into a giant hole that led… somewhere, only to find out they didn’t know what they were even looking for.

Deceit seemed to be the only one who didn’t look surprised or upset by this information, but chances are he already knew. You don’t hide things from Deceit… Deceit was generally the one who did that to everyone else. If Logos was smart, he probably had told Deceit the dirty truth from the very beginning. 

The sides finally glanced around their surroundings. They seemed to be in some type of underground cave. Above them, the ceiling had formed back into rock once more. The rock was dark grey in color and jutted out of the walls and the floor in spiky points. Their light came from faintly flickering torches on the walls, just enough for them to see each other. No matter how much the fire burnt through the torches, they would never give out.

The area they had fallen into was circular, and there were two long ‘hallways’ leading off from the main cavern area. No way to know which was the correct way, or even if there was a correct way and not just another looping pathway like from up above. 

Both looked the exact same, and none of their senses pointed to any type of difference from the two cave halls. “Now what?” Pathos muttered, glaring at the halls. All of them were in a bad mood at this point, and eyes turned towards Deceit.

_ “Right,” _ Deceit said after a pause, which of course, meant left from his tone of voice. There didn’t seem to be any way for him to know that was correct, but they didn’t have any better options, and none of them really wanted to split up this time. Besides, they were all mentally exhausted and annoyed out of their minds. They couldn’t care less if they went right or left.

This time, Deceit led, taking the proper place a leader should take instead of pushing Virgil ahead with the intent of making him stumble and further injured. Not that Virgil was going to be upset with this new development. The rest of the sides followed along behind, their unhappiness with the situation only growing with each step they took.

“Hold on Thomas,” Roman muttered softly under his breath, eyes dark as he glared at Pathos, the closet side to him. “Not much longer now…” Of course, he couldn’t know that for sure. But the last thing to go was always hope.

Thankfully, this hall wasn’t as long as the ones in the forest, and they did eventually make it somewhere- though nowhere they had expected. They all stopped when they came across the door, sitting in the middle of the cave.

No, it wasn’t a door to a house or anything like that. It was a door, standing perfectly upright, without touching any of the walls. If you wanted, you could walk all the way around it. It was a door to nowhere. “Logos?” Deceit asked.

Logos was already moving forward, even before his name was called, narrowing his eyes at the door. “It will either bring us closer to our destination or further away,” Logos finally said, stepping backward. He seemed perplexed but intrigued by the puzzle presented in front of him.

Roman snorted, rolling his eyes. “Oh another great deduction,” he drawled, rolling his eyes. “Any of us could have figured that out.” He spat the rest of his words out as though they were full of poison. 

Logos sent Roman a glare, hand twitching towards his weapon. He had to remind himself that they really didn’t have the time for something like this though, and turned back to the door with a tiny shudder. “My assumption would be another door in the other hallway,” he said shortly. “Only one is correct.”

Once more, they had a decision to make, with no way to tell  _ which _ was correct.


	7. Chapter 7

“This is illogical,” Logos complained, for what wasn’t the first time. “There’s no possible way to figure out which option is correct and which option is incorrect.” Pathos rolled his eyes, looking over at Logos and pressing his lips together.

“It’s a game of chance,” Pathos snapped, like that explained everything. Really, it did. It was a fifty-fifty chance, a roll of the dice. One path would lead them somewhere, and the other half would lead them somewhere else. There was no way for them to know which did which- they had to guess or just stand there forever, and standing there forever wouldn’t exactly get them anywhere.

“We don’t have a choice,” Deceit said, gazing at the doorway presented in front of him with narrowed eyes. “We need to either randomly pick, or split up.”

Virgil frowned. They had just decided against splitting up, and now they had to do it again? He hadn’t forgotten that they had a traitor among them, even if sometimes it seemed like Deceit had forgotten that ‘small’ fact. One of them would have to be a group of two, and if that group of two happened to be the one with the traitor…

It was a design set up for failure. But still, he kept his mouth shut, knowing that anything he said would only land him in a universe of trouble and pain. Logos, on the other hand, didn’t follow Virgil’s actions and keep his own mouth shut. “We have a traitor. If one of us gets caught in a formation of two with the unknown traitor-”

“I’m willing to be on the group of two,” Roman offered, grinning creepily. “I’ll slice any traitor into tiny little bits before they can even try to touch me.” Deceit frowned a bit at the king, tilting his head to the side.

_ “You’ll be on the group of two,” _ he decided, his voice clear in his true meaning as he ignored Roman’s instant annoyed face at having his request denied.  _ “Virgil and Pathos will also be on the group of two.” _ Virgil and Pathos gave each other surprised looks. They were both annoyed with Roman for his constant attacks throughout their ‘adventure,’ starting with Roman stabbing Pathos way at the start while the pair had been looking for Thomas’ reason for falling into a coma and Roman trying to slice Virgil’s head in half while arguing over the evil bunny. 

Roman frowned as well, but none of them fought. They knew better than to start a fight with Deceit, after all, it never got any of them anywhere good. “Who will take which portal?” Roman asked after a moment, gesturing towards the doorway. 

Portal… well, it seemed to fit Roman’s twisted ideas for adventures, though it wasn’t the word Virgil would use. Mysterious doorway into possible death and or torture chamber of eternal pain? Yes, that seemed much more likely. “Logos and I will take this one,” Deceit replied, smirking a bit. 

Deceit knew they all had things they wished to say to him, and he all knew they never could. He took great pleasure in it as well, the sadistic monster that he was. Roman, Virgil, and Pathos seemed hesitant, but they nodded, and turned, going down the way they had come.

Logos looked at Deceit, frowning a bit and fixing his glasses. Deceit didn’t bother him as much as he bothered, for example, Virgil, but being alone with their leader wasn’t something Logos was much inclined to. Deceit gestured to the door and Logos knew what he wanted- he wanted Logos to play the slave, open the door for him, walk in first. 

He wanted Logos to be the shield. With anyone else, the thought would be enough to make Logos draw out a knife and slice off their face, cut their jaw off and allowing their tongue to hang, a bloody mess, dripping saliva and gore. He knew better to even hesitate though. Logos inwardly wianced, remembering the last time he had snapped at Deceit and tried to go against him. Long story short, it wasn’t pretty.

So of course, he wasn't going to refuse, no matter how distasteful he personally found the action. Stepping forwards, he opened the door. He could see right through it like there was truly nothing there, but there was a soft glimmer around the entrance, which made him doubt that very much, no matter what it may seem. Taking a deep breath just in case (you always have to be prepared for any circumstances) he stepped through, knowing that Deceit would be following behind him.

Instantly, Logos' surroundings shifted. Frowning, he glanced around. It looked a bit like his room, but... not. His room was full of weapons sorted by type and amount of pain caused, books on body decomposition and killers throughout history, posters of anatomy and said famous killers on his walls. This room was different. The posters had become posters of space and scientists, the books going through every subject other than killers including chemistry, biography, and literature. There wasn’t a weapon in sight. 

Also, there was someone on the bed. Logos looked at them slowly. They looked like Thomas, of course. Everyone in Thomas' head tended to take his appearance. They looked a lot like Logos as well though. They both wore glasses and had similar intelligent airs and slightly similar fashion sense, but not exact. 

Logos pulled his gun out, making sure it was loaded. It still had the explosive bullets in it from earlier, so he switched them to poisonous ones. Shooting explosives in a small space would lead to nothing good. The other side followed his actions calmly, not looking too worried. Frowning, Logos risked a glance behind him, wondering where Deceit was- but no one was there, and the door was gone.

He was alone... Logos looked in front of him again, raising his gun up and clicking the safety off. "Reveal yourself," he ordered, voice empty and devoid, as if all emotion was stripped away.

The stranger stood up, raising his hands in the air in a gesture of peace. "My name is Logan," he introduced himself. "I am you, or, what you could have been but no longer are." Logos narrowed his eyes at 'Logan.' They had the same name? Well, not the exact same of course, but his name combined with his words painted a clear version of who was he facing- himself.

"Elaborate," he said, with the same tone of 'this is not a request, this is an order.' Luckily, Logan didn't seem too surprised or bothered with that, bowing his head only in a quiet show of submission. 

"I am you," Logan repeated, "if Thomas hadn't gone down the dark path he had decided to take. I am who you will be facing. I am your final enemy before you make it to your destination, simply because I am the only one that you would allow to slow you down, because I am your equal, and you are not a fighter, not really. You are Logic. All I wish to do is talk."

Logos didn't lower the gun, he was intelligent enough to know that would be a stupid idea. But he did lower his guard, just a bit. He could tell Logan wasn't a side, not really, not in this reality. "Talk about what?"

Logan gestured around the room as if it showed everything he needed to say. "About what could have been," he replied softly, his own eyes traveling over the room, lingering on the posters, the books, a picture. Logos looked at the picture as well. It was of all the sides he knew, minus Deceit, standing together and smiling. They were wearing slightly different clothes, Roman had his arm draped around an annoyed but smiling Logan’s shoulders, the alternate Patton laughing happily as the other Virgil hid his own grin behind his sleeve. It was strange, and Logos frowned a bit.

The show of friends, the show of them caring for each other. It was alien to him. If they were ever in that position in his reality, one of them would cut the others up in a moment for showing such weakness. Logan followed Logos with his own eyes, and looked at the picture as well. "Would you ever want something like that?" he asked after a small pause. "Love. Even if my reality, in the reality that could have been, I didn't believe in it. Not at first. A curse every Logic must overcome, I suppose."

Logos looked back at Logan and tilted his head slightly to the side. "I'm a clinical psychopath," he said after a moment, "so no, I don't want love. It seems like you are not a psychopath, so maybe you can want and experience these things, but I do not."

Logan shook his head no. "Thomas, even your Thomas, is not a psychopath," he pointed out simply. "Clinically, it is impossible for a psychopath to be cured- no pill or vaccine can create empathy, love. But you- we -all of the sides... we are not real. We are fabricated. As a side, your psychopathy could be cured, if your Thomas improved."

"Do you truly believe that would happen?" Logos didn't care much for the answer, but if Logan wanted to talk about what could have been then he would, and then he would move onto actually important things- killing the traitor and saving his Thomas.

There was a tiny pause. Logan was considered the question seriously, which was pleasant. Surrounded by the sides of his reality, having someone show some form of intelligence was relaxing. "Yes," Logan finally said, "I believe it's possible. But one of you has to change to start down that path, and I don't know if that would ever happen."

The answer held truth. None of them would change, simply because none of them cared enough to ever try to, to ever  _ want _ to. Finally, Logos looked away from the picture- of the happy, smiling people. "It will not," he said, and Logan only nodded at him. "Why did you share this with me? You know I won't care."

Logan nodded again. "You won't," he agreed. "But one day, there is a 0.0001% chance you will look back on this conversation, and a tiny flicker of caring will flicker through you. If there is even the smallest chance of that happening, then this conversation, in my opinion, was completely worthwhile."

Logos supposed if that was important to Logan, it was alright. The conversation hadn't taken long anyways. Breathing out, Logos raised the gun to his other self and pulled the trigger. Logan didn't flinch or move to get out of the way. The bullet hit him through the skull, blood splattering onto the wall behind him, and the other fell with a thud, body going still before it even hit the floor.

Logos didn't flinch. He glanced at the picture one last time, and allowed himself to do what he felt was needed- placing his gun away, he glanced at Logan once more, and then turned and left the room, going through the door that had somehow appeared. 

Meanwhile, earlier on, when Logos first stepped through the 'portal' Deceit had waited a moment to make sure he wasn't going to blow up or die or something similar, in which case he would just turn around and go with the other group instead. Naturally, he wouldn't be bothered or upset at all. Besides, there was a chance Logos was the traitor, right? So if anything they should be thanking him of course.

Luckily though, there was no explosion or screaming, at least nothing that Deceit could see. It was as safe as he was going to get, so taking a deep breath, he stepped in... and right away, darkness surrounded him. "Logos?" Deceit called out after a moment of silence. All he could see was darkness, everywhere, it was distorting to say the very least. 

There was no reply, so Deceit figured Logos wasn't there. If he were there, he would know better then to ignore Deceit. Lifting his hand up, Deceit put it right in front of his head, but the absence of light was truly total. He couldn't see even a tiny bit of his hand, the darkness completely and utterly swallowed it up. Frowning, Deceit pressed a heel gently into the ground. 

He could feel ground below him, so he had to be somewhere, correct? Even if he didn't hear anything? Slowly, he turned around, but whatever door or portal it was he had come through seemed to have closed behind him when he passed through it. Reaching forwards, he felt around the air, searching to see if maybe he just couldn't see it. He didn't feel anything though, just more empty air.

Deceit exhaled slowly, narrowing his eyes. Carefully, he pulled out his sickle with one hand, keeping his other one out in front of him so that he would be able to move around without running into anything. If there was anything to even run into, though. With slow, careful motions, he moved forwards, feeling out, hand tight on his weapon, ready to use it at a moment's notice.

As he walked further into the darkness and didn't run into anything, he relaxed a bit, frowning. It seemed like he really was alone in some sort of completely empty room or some sort of eternal platform. The abyss was swallowing up everything, but it wasn't uncomfortable. He was a sanders side, he was more than used to the dark, and he knew it wasn't anything he should be afraid of.

Really though, this challenge was starting to really get to him. What was he supposed to do? Wander around in the darkness forever.  _ "Well this is fun,"  _ he said dryly, slow clapping his hands together, even if no one could see him. Never a bad time to be as dramatic as possible, was he right or was he right? Of course, he was right, he was always right.

As soon as the words had left him though, something had started to happen. The strange room shook and ground shaking as if a mini earthquake had started up inside. Stumbling, Deceit planted his feet slightly apart in a wide stance in order to remain standing, the shadows annoying him once more. Stuck in this night, if something snuck up behind him, he wouldn't be able to defend himself. He wondered if Logos was in a similar place, and how he was dealing. Not that he really cared if he were doing badly, but Logos' quick working mind would be helpful in this type of situation.

That was their job, the other sides. To act like tools, for Thomas, yes, and more importantly, for him. Deceit only wanted what was best for Thomas, only wanted Thomas to remain as happy as possible. Thomas deserved the world- deserved to be able to do whatever he wanted to, and Deceit would do his best to make that a reality.

The earthquake stopped as quickly as it came, letting Deceit not have to worry about trying to remain standing- at least, not until it happened again, though hopefully it wouldn't. "Hello?" Deceit snarled again. Now he felt a presence- someone else was here. "Reveal yourself,  _ you'll definitely enjoy what comes next." _ Deceit laughed creepily, swinging his sickle around in his hand.

**"I'm still here."**

_ No. _ Deceit froze slightly, eyes growing wide. That was impossible. That person was gone, permanently. They had been gone for a long time- Deceit would know since he was the one who had gotten rid of them once and for all. But the voice... it was impossible not to recognize, even after all these years. 

"I killed you," Deceit said blankly. He had tried at least, but clearly, he hadn't.

The voice was quiet. It, no, HE... was weak still, struggling to make his voice heard.  **"You didn't,"** it finally said, breaking the silence.

Deceit considered the situation. He was still too weak to wake up fully, so for now, Deceit should be safe. How he was awake even this much was a wonder, but not really something Deceit wanted to dwell on. Actually, the answer was clear. The broken lock. When it had broken, the shift must have been enough to stir him awake slightly, but as soon as it was fixed, he would fade away once more. Fade into Thomas' mind, fade enough so that he could never wake ever again. It was his job.

As if he could read Deceit thoughts, he replied.  **"Did you forget me?"** he asked.  **"Don't think you can lock me away again. You can't."**

They would see about that. "Let me go," Deceit growled, ordering, eyes flashing darkly. There was a moment of silence, and Deceit wondered if he would. Or if he would just try to keep him here forever. But no. A door shimmered into existence, and Deceit exited quickly, and never once did he turn around.

As long as he was alive, that side would remain asleep forever. 


	8. Chapter 8

Walking all the way back to the start and then going in the other direction was a bit annoying to the group of three, but at the very least the pathway was short. It didn't stop them from bickering with each other though. Virgil had opted to say mostly quiet for whatever reason, but Pathos was clearly not intending on the same thing.

Roman had declared himself their leader it appeared, despite the other two not being offered any input on the decision. He walked in front of them, leading the way, his sword drawn out into his hand and being waved around dramatically. The action cast lights against the cavern walls, reflections of the blade.

"-no matter what we run into, neither of you need to worry," Roman said. It sounded as if he were trying to reassure them, but in truth, they both knew all he was doing was bragging about how strong and amazing he was, and claiming that they were weak and scared and useless at the same time. Both of them (Pathos and Virgil, that is) had been doing this dance for a long enough time. They both knew how to read between the lines in speech.

Pathos bristled a bit at the words, hands twitching for his own weapons, but he held himself back. Pathos normally was driven by emotions, which could make him react without thinking sometimes, but he wasn't completely stupid. He knew better than to attack Roman in such a closed in space. Besides, he had other, more fun ways to attack Roman if need be. Pathos grinned creepily at his sadistic, perverted daydreams. Virgil caught the look and shivered, looking away.

They didn't know if Deceit and Logos had gone through the 'portal' yet anyways. If they hadn't, and they were within hearing distance, they could come over and intervene in case of a fight. With Deceit, you'd never know what side he would take either. 

Probably whatever side Virgil wasn't on. "Maybe you should be the one in the back," Pathos said, voice pretty much overflowing with fake cheer. "Aren't you scared you'll chip your ego?"

He hadn't even attempted to hide that jab with pretty words. Roman glanced back at him, lips moving upwards in a smile. A jagged, sharp smile, not a kind one of course. "I'm not afraid," he said simply. "My enemies are the ones that will be afraid." Pathos snarled softly as Roman turned back around to face front.

Roman hadn't even made a point to say who his so-called enemies were, an open invitation really. It had been made clear that Virgil was on Pathos' side, but since Virgil hadn't openly said it out loud yet, Roman was open to change. Virgil, in general, liked to stay pretty neutral until he had no other choice in the matter. At that point after, the winner was pretty clear, and Virgil always enjoyed to be on the winning side.

They finished the walk in silence, stopping in front of the door. It looked the exact same as the other one had appeared to look- just a door in the middle of an otherwise empty space, a door that seemed to be leading to nowhere. 

"Will you be going first then?" Pathos asked, his words sounding like a challenge. Waving a hand behind him, Roman brushed Pathos' words off, sending him another look. It was an amused look as if Pathos' rage against him was funny and didn't mean anything. It made Pathos tense even more. He hated being patronized. 

Roman stepped forwards, opening the door wide. "If that's what you want," he offered, shrugging loosely, and then stepping through. The second any part of him moved through the doorway it vanished, his body fading into nothing. 

When he was gone, Pathos turned slightly to Virgil. This of course, was maybe the only moment he would be able to speak to Virgil without Roman listening in. So if Pathos wanted to move against Roman, and wanted Virgil on his side? He'd ask now. "Virgil-" he started, but Virgil raised a hand quickly, cutting him off.

Virgil had already decided to stay out of this until he didn't have another choice in the matter after all. Not really paying attention, he stepped through the portal.

It was another forest, but different from the other one. The other one had appeared to be just a normal forest, after all, a large open area full of lush green trees, bushes, and areas dotted with wildflowers. This forest seemed sick, twisted. Trees rose, but the bark was bent and rough, and the branches dripped weird, thick black fluid like ink or rot, as though they took the place of leaves.

The ground below their feet was grass, but the grass was bent and yellow, crumbling by the lightest touch of their feet, turning into dust in the wind. There were still bushes, but the bushes were thicker, the thorns (for every bush was covered in them) long and thick, looking wicked sharp. There were flowers, but... the flowers were almost impossible to describe.

They were large and mutated, covered in growths, some of which almost looked like eyes. They all hunched over as if their weight was just too much for them to carry, and some had slits that looked like mouths or thick heady pollen that looked like blood, dripping sticky and viscous to the ground in piles, gluey syrupy puddles. 

Pathos stepped out behind him, and the portal vanished behind them as if it had never even been there. The three sides glanced around, and Virgil and Pathos pulled out their weapons. Two knives, a curved blade with purple gems, and a plain drop-point blade, just like the ones they had used earlier. 

No sooner then they pulled out their knives, a... thing swept down from above them. It had huge wings and thousands of mouth all over its body, mouths clicking open and closed, lined with needle teeth. It had no eyes, but it could see them- because it was coming right at them, sticking out it's cutting edged birdlike claws. 

As it neared close, Roman swung his sword up, stabbing it. The blood that leaked was dark purple and thick like sludge. The creature was impaled on his sword and it struggled, making horrible screeching noises, long and hard and drawn out. But after a moment it went limp, and it's body dissolved.

"I feel like we picked the harder path," Virgil said after a moment, as Roman paused to wipe the blood off his sword onto the bark of a nearby tree.

Pathos poked one of the 'flowers' with his knife, moving back when the flower twitched and spurted out yellow pus, burning the ground like acid where it landed. "If theirs is worse then this, if this is the easy path, I don't think I want to know what their pathway is," Pathos declared, wrinkling his nose slightly.

Even Roman was forced to nod in agreement, keeping his body tense for any other creatures about to sweep down at any moment, ready to grab them and rip them up and devour them. "We need to move," Roman guessed. They were surrounded by bushes, and only really had one direction to move, so they started down that way.

At least this time Pathos didn't complain when Roman took the front, probably more than happy to let Roman be the one in danger of being eaten or devoured. As they walked, the attacks didn't stop.

They attacked from all sides. They all looked like a mockery of some animal went wrong. A dog with melted eyes and ten legs ran out of the forest, wagging it's whip-like razor tail around, making noises that sounded like a human screaming, only stopping when Virgil caught his knife on its throat, tearing it open and letting it bleed out.

A quick moving fleeting cat-like animal stalked them from behind, blinking its fifty eyes, it's huge curved antlers covered in impaled tiny creatures like mice and small birds, some still squirming, guts and blood spilling down onto the ground. The cat almost caught Pathos and would have if Virgil didn't see it out of the corner of his eye, the glint of the tough scales on it's back reflecting in the light just enough for him to catch on.

That one was difficult to kill. It's scale deflected most attacks, and they had to get it flipped on its back in order to slice it open from its stomach, spilling its organs and juices into the dead grass. The smell was putrid, and they all looked away pretty quickly, moving on.

They must have moved forwards, fighting off attacks for maybe an hour. Their arms and legs were heavy with the constant motion, and they were all growing frustrated, which in turn made them snappy with each other. Roman finally stopped in front of them, eyes widening in slight surprise.

The best way to describe it was... huge, gooey, and with things floating around inside of its body. Its touch burned their flesh, and in the end, Pathos blew it up, making it explode, goo flying everywhere, splattering. That's when Roman noticed the trap door the creature had been sitting on top of.

"So... trapdoor equals a good idea?" Roman guessed. He kneeled by the trap door and opened it, and the three of them surrounded it to look inside, all the while still keeping an eye on their surroundings. They weren't in the mood to be attacked again, but with this forest, they were guessing that another one of those annoying attacks was bound to happen any minute now. 

Glancing inside the trap door, they wondered if this was going to be a good idea though. All they could see was darkness. It looked like there was no end, an endless hole right in front of them. Virgil, being anxiety, went into overdrive. They could fall forever, for eternity... Since they can't die, eternity was going to be a long time.

Pathos, on the other hand, didn't seem too bothered. Actually, he seemed to be acting a bit... off. Roman couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was that felt so concerning, but it was definitely something. Grinning, Pathos leaned forwards, looking down the black hole with a weird blankness on his face. "I think it looks fun," he decided, eyes twinkling. 

Both Roman and Virgil gave Pathos blank looks of shock, staring at him in silence for a moment. "It looks... fun?" Roman repeated. He let the trap door drop and slid his sword back into his belt. The forest had gone dead silent, and he had a feeling that there really wouldn't be any more attacks. Throughout his time as a self-proclaimed king, Roman had learned to trust his feelings. They rarely led him in the wrong direction, after all.

Pathos stood up along with Roman, and they faced each other. Virgil narrowed his eyes, glancing back and forth. Roman had put his sword away but Pathos still had his knife... he had a feeling something important was about to happen.

It happened before Virgil could react. Pathos smiled, and that was the only warning, but Pathos was always smiling. Creepy smiles, too wide, too fast. Too many teeth shown off, more like a growl then a smile, an animalistic show of strength. In the split second after he smiled he drove forwards, flying his knife upwards and aiming for the neck of the king.

Roman threw himself backward, but Pathos fell on him quickly, and Roman had no room to pull his sword out. It wasn't small like a knife, not easy to use in this type of situation. Virgil watched the situation unfold with raised eyebrows, his own knife slipping into his hand, as he considered his options.

As Pathos stabbed down, Roman grabbed the blade with his hand, gasping madly. Pathos was laughing, a glitched-out sounding echo, a crazed, insane noise. He was saying something as well, but it was spoken so quickly and was hidden so well under his crazed, broken laughter, that it sounded like another language completely.

Virgil watched as Roman's blood dripped scarlet onto his own face, blinding the narcissistic king, making his struggle even more difficult. Finally, he decided to help Pathos out. As already decided, Roman had been getting on his nerves lately as well. Stepping forwards, Virgil raised his knife, intended to cut Roman's wrists so that Pathos could drive his blade where it belonged.

Before he could, Pathos went limp, a shocked gasp escaping him, as he fell sideways, off of Roman. A knife was protruding from his chest, and something green seemed to stain the knife- poison? So, the king had a hidden knife? Once more, Virgil stepped back, recognizing that this time Roman had the upper hand right now. Virgil was prepared to wait once more. "You rat," Roman muttered, sounding amazed. 

In a quick motion, Roman slammed his fist down onto Pathos' head, knocking him unconscious. Slowly, he looked at Virgil. Virgil stared back, both of them dead silent. Roman frowned and looked like he had come to a decision. Standing, the king stretched his arms above his hand, drawing his sword again. The action made Virgil tense, and he inwardly prepared himself for a fight about to happen. 

But Roman didn't move. "I'm the traitor," he suddenly said, and Virgil sucked in a sharp breath. Narrowing his eyes, Roman drew his eyes across Virgil, watching him carefully. Virgil was strong, very strong since anxiety was one of the strongest influences on Thomas at this point. A 'bad' emotion. If he could get Virgil on his side... "I'm trying to defeat Deceit and take over," Roman said slowly. "He's a bad leader, Virgil. You know that. Join me. Help me."

Virgil was staring at Roman, eyes wide, as his brain scrambled to keep up with the new flood of information. Virgil hated Deceit. Most of the sides did. But Deceit had always been too strong for any of them to even hope to defeat. Virgil slowly looked at Pathos, frowning. With Pathos out of the way, it would be Deceit and Logos against Virgil and Roman, if Virgil agreed.

Would that work? Was that possible? In complete honesty, Virgil wasn't sure. Virgil was probably the second strongest, maybe tied with Roman, but Deceit was more powerful than either of them. Logos wouldn't be a problem though.

Did he want to? Of course, he did, that didn't even feel like a question. Taking over, ruling instead of Deceit... putting Deceit in his place. Virgil smiled a bit at the thought. Deceit under him, lying there, bones shattered, covered in bruises and cuts, Virgil putting him there- stabbing him, cutting him, breaking him... Virgil shivered at the thought. 

"What exactly are you planning?" Virgil demanded quietly. He lowered his knife slightly, just enough to show that he was considering it, but not enough so that he couldn't fight or defend himself if he suddenly needed to. Roman clearly noticed the action, and the message it sent if the tiny smirk on his face meant anything.

"There's a pool," Roman said slowly, "in the middle of this place. It's a huge part of what lets Deceit control us all. I saw it last time I was here, but it wasn't- I couldn't get to it, not when Thomas was awake. My guess is, last time Deceit was here we were all children since he clearly can't remember it that well. Since it's been so long, his control is fading a bit. It's the only way I could have knocked Thomas out this easily without him figuring out it was me."

"Wait, why were you here?"

Roman shrugged loosely. "I knew I wanted to drag that slimy snake out of the king's chair, but I didn't know how," he admitted. "So I searched. It's what I do- I get creative, Virgil. If you join me, we can rule them together. Just.. accept me. Take my hand, Virgil." Roman lowered his sword, offering his own hand.

A complete show of vulnerability. An almost unheard of show in the sides lives. It was a sign. Roman meant what he said. A partner would be optimal for him, and the offered position would be great for Virgil, someone Deceit abused so harshly. Besides, if Deceit really drew power from this 'pool' like Roman claimed, it meant Deceit wasn't even stronger then Virgil like he acted. He just had complete control over Thomas' mind.

He was cheating.

Virgil stepped forwards and accepted Roman's hand, sealing the partnership. "What first?" he asked, letting go, heart in his chest. This was going to work. It would work, and it would be perfect.

Smiling, Roman gestured down to Pathos. "If we leave him, he'll heal and wake," Roman explained. "But there is one creative idea I've thought of." Virgil raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue, making Roman smiled wider. "Bury him alive," he whispered softly.

Perfect.


	9. Chapter 9

Their (their meaning, of course, Logos and Deceit) experiences after going through the mysterious door completely differed from each other, so the time difference in which it took them to move through their different areas made sense. Meeting a different version of yourself, talking to them, and then killing them should take a different amount of time then entering a dark space and talking to a disembodied unknown voice you  _ seem  _ (?) to remember killing before.

That was probably why walking out of these scenarios at the exact same time was a bit strange for the pair since they did decide to turn to each other and talk about how long it had taken them, they would still discover the amount of time was different. It made no logical sense, something Logos wasn’t happy about. 

But then again, it's not like this was the real world. This was deep inside of Thomas' mind, so time running off schedule didn't feel like much of a big deal, after Logos’ logical frustration had settled down. They had faced many things thus far, and this was probably far from the strangest. Still, that left the matter of what each had gone through after they were separated. 

"What did you see?" Deceit demanded the second he came face to face with Logos. Logos startled slightly, grip on his gun tightening sharply. Deceit noticed his shoes had flecks of blood on them and raised an eyebrow at the observation, relaxing a bit at the discovery that Logos hadn’t spoken to the same person he had faced. Whatever Logos had gone through must have been more entertaining than his own experience at the very least.

Logos followed his gaze, looking down at his own feet. He seemed hesitant- felt hesitant. Logan, Logos’ strange alter ego, had talked about strange things, and he didn't believe the words that had been exchanged however shortly. Even so, the entire thing had still felt personal somehow. Still, he knew better than to try to hide it or lie to Deceit. Even more so since he had hesitated so clearly. It was obvious he was hesitant about telling Deceit, so Deceit would have his guard up looking for signs of lying even more so than usual… or maybe he was just reading into this too much.

But still, it didn't mean Logos had to be explicit with what he had 'seen.' "I spoke to a personification of Thomas' logic from an alternate reality where different events transpired that drove Thomas to be a cordial type of person, it appeared. I uniformly shot this contemporary 'Logic' in the cranium." 

So Logos hadn't spoken to the same person Deceit had. Deceit smiled, waving his hands out dramatically, smiling creepily. "Wonderful.  _ I had a similar experience," _ he lied flawlessly. "I don't believe the details are important." Logos nodded sharply in seeming in agreement. 

Logos was easy to get along with, and difficult at the same time in Deceit’s opinion. He was smart, did his job, followed orders, and knew his place. At the same time, he was annoying, whiny, and the fact that he was convinced he was better than everyone else made Deceit want to carve out Logos' brain... again. Along with that line of thought, he had a small defiant spark, enough for Deceit to think he may be the traitor that they're all searching so hard for.

On the subject of the traitor, it was truly growing annoying. Normally Deceit believed he could find them easily, after all lying his what he was good at, the thing he knew best. But in the end, he couldn't figure out who it was.

Either the traitor was a good actor, or it was hard to pick out these lies from the rest. In the end, all of the sides lied to each other, so much and so often. If Deceit really tried to notice every lie, he would get a headache and loose count within ten minutes. All he could do was wait and continue onwards. The traitor would be forced to show themselves at some point, and when they did, Deceit would be ready for them.

"Shall we commence inspecting the area?" Logos questioned, breaking Deceit out of his thoughts.

Deceit nodded at Logos' question. The entire situation was worrying, but he had to move on like he had already decided on.  _ That _ person was still asleep. Them stirring a bit wouldn't be a huge deal truly... He would finish up with this issue, punish the traitor however he deemed fit, and then move on as leader of the sides, protecting Thomas and getting him whatever he wanted in life, by whatever means necessary. 

Turning, Deceit flared his clothes out dramatically, scanning the room they were in with narrowed eyes. It was small, and of course, there were no doors- by now, he was growing accustomed to places down here either not containing a door, or if they did, the door being placed in strange places, only to be triggered in strange ways.

Laughing slightly, Deceit tapped his fingers together. The walls were stone, and so were the ground and the roof. It was like the cave they had been in prior to the darkness, or, in Logos' mind, prior to the other version of himself and the technical suicide then committed. This 'cave' was just a room instead, without any way out.

_ Well, _ Logos considered, moving around the walls,  _ there's always a way out. _ He was running his fingers over the uneven stone, searching for any hidden symbols or latches in the bumpy surface. A button, a scratch, some hidden message or challenge. It seemed to fit this adventure they were on, an adventure full of secret passageways, traitors, and fighting.

Not that Logos really considered this an adventure. Weren't adventures supposed to be fun and entertaining? His idea of fun was reading about Pedro Alonso Lopez or Ted Bundy. He didn't really care for the rape, but he supposed sexual urges were natural. Either way, he didn't care about sexual urges himself, though he did enjoy recreating the killings on fake, conjured up people. Sadly, as he was only present in Thomas' mind, he couldn't express these artistic actions on the living. 

Still, the more he killed, the more the thoughts and visions of the killings implanted themselves in Thomas, drawing him further down the path of death and gore. 

Either way, he had gotten off his main point. He didn't find anything on the walls, and as time continued ticking by, he was getting more and more frustrated. Finally, he pulled out his gun, switching the poison bullets he had used earlier with some more exploding bullets.

It seemed like a good idea- shooting through the wall, that is. "I would advise you to back up," Logos warned. Looking up and seeing what he was doing, Deceit backed into the corner to avoid being exploded. Raising his gun to the wall, Logos conducted some quick math and science in his head, picking the correct place to shoot and aiming. Clicking the safety off, Logos placed his finger on the trigger.

"I͕̦͎̤͔̗ ̡̺͔͖̣̳̹w̼͇͈͎̬ọ̷u̱͜l̛͇̪d҉̦͍n̹͈̮̼̥'̳̥̝͍̱̕t͓̥͞ ͟d̷̤̲̭̮o͈͇̫̲̖͖̺ ͢ţh҉̝̘̞̱ͅa͓̗̜̬̱̤͖t̴͚.͏̦͖̣̺̗"

Logos turned quickly, pointing his gun instead at the newcomer. Deceit as well had moved fast, drawing his sickle out and spinning it, grinning widely at the prospect of chopping someone up into tiny slices of meat. 

The voice, of course, belonged to a Thomas look-a-like. This Thomas was wearing all black, black jeans with a black t-shirt and a simple black coat. He was.. weird as well. Logos squinted, trying to focus on his form, but it was like he was glitching. His body flickered, and his shadows looked like faces, and his colors echoed red blue and green before fading back to normal colors for a split second and then snapping out again.

"You would be?" Deceit purred softly, raising an eyebrow at the glitched out Thomas. Despite the danger presented in front of them, he only seemed excited. 

Glitched Thomas turned towards Deceit, glitching harder as he moved around the room. He cleared his throat, and when he spoke, he spoke without the disturbing echo he had first spoken with. "Who am I? I'm part of Thomas like we all are. Not a side, of course. Not all of us are as important as you."

"If you are a part of Thomas, we are on the same side," Logos spoke. Despite his words, he didn't lower his gun. He wasn’t an idiot (of course). "Allow us out of this room."

Glitched Thomas cast a glance around, and frowned, shaking his head no. Despite how he should feel, Deceit only seemed to brighten up a bit at that, even more so than he already was. He really was in the mood to chop someone up, it seemed. Glitched Thomas focused on Logos. "I am here to warn you," he said softly. "You need to stop."

"You need to die," Deceit snarled, spinning the sickle faster. He looked ready to attack, annoying Logos with his fast paced actions. Logos was eager to see how the glitched Thomas would die as well, but he knew gathering information first was important. 

"Stop what?"

"All the sides need to be joined. No one side can be a leader, and no one side can be locked away," glitched Thomas said softly. "It is creating unbalance in Thomas' mind."

Deceit burst out laughing. Logos didn't really 'laugh,' or feel that many emotions in general, but even he sighed softly at the words of the glitched Thomas. "Can I kill him now?" Deceit drawled, sarcastic, still laughing. "Since it's clear all he has up his sleeves are lies?" Logos nodded. No point in talking to another idiot. It felt like Logan all over again with the ‘kindness.’

The glitched Thomas frowned but didn't seem surprised. He stood still as if he were just going to wait for his death to come and end him. Logos and Deceit exchanged one more look. Deceit lunged forwards, bringing his sickle down with a woosh of air, even as Logos quickly started to change his bullets out. The exploding ones would kill one of them, or bring the roof down on their heads, definitely not an optimal weapon in this type of fight.

The glitched Thomas reacted at the last moment, his entire body vanishing right before the sickle made contact. Deceit landed lightly on his feet, twirling around to locate where glitched Thomas had relocated to. Directly behind him, glitched Thomas simply raised his hand. In that simple motion, Deceit was thrown off his feet and ended up flung into the wall behind him with a loud crack as the stone splintered behind him, only proving how hard he had been thrown.

Logos finished switching his bullets to normal ones and raised his gun, aiming and pulling the trigger. A weird, glitched forcefield appeared in front of glitched Thomas though, and the bullet fell to the ground as soon as it collided. Logos' mind was working overdrive as the force field faded from view, trying to discover what weaknesses there were, what weaknesses he could use to exploit and gain the upper hand.

Deceit pushed himself up onto his feet again, stretching his shoulders out with a tiny snarl of pain. "Logos?" he demanded sharply, the question not really needing to be voiced. What was going on? What had Logos seen? An opening, a weakness?

"Working on it," Logos reassured quickly. It was good Deceit hadn’t broken any bones, since that would have slowed them down. He probably had some nasty bruises though. Logos started running through their enemies attacks in slow motion,  looking for weaknesses, but as he did so, glitched Thomas saw his chance. Raising his hand, he made a squeezing motion, and suddenly, Logos couldn't breathe. Stumbling, he rapidly opened and closed his mouth, trying to gasp for a breath. Suffocation wouldn't kill him of course, but it would knock him out, a scenario he didn't exactly feel like dealing with.

Noticing Logos' pain, Deceit rolled his eyes but moved to help anyways. After all, he needed Logos to discover the weakness of the glitched Thomas so that Deceit could slice him open from head to toe. Would blood splatter out? Or would he sizzle out of reality? His excitement and curiosity were growing with each moment he was forced to wait.

Moving quickly, Deceit aimed for the glitched Thomas' hand again. He was avoided, but since attacking had forced glitched Thomas to focus on Deceit instead, Logos was able to breathe once more, something he was more than happy to do. As oxygen once again flooded through his body, Logos came up with a theory as he observed a shield once more pop up to block one of Deceit’s attacks.

The shields that glitched Thomas summoned only covered half his body, the half that was being attacked, leaving the other half of his body wide open. A perfect place and a perfect chance to attack and kill him from an unprotected direction. The only problem was his ability to teleport, but since he had only done it once, Logos came to the logical conclusion that it took too much energy for glitched Thomas to be able to do it more than once.

The idea was worth an attempt at least, was it not? "Circle," Logos said quickly, the tone of voice as smooth and as calm as ever. Raising an eyebrow, Deceit nodded, standing up and moving over to the other side of glitched Thomas. Glitched Thomas tensed and moved forwards quickly, making Logos' first shot of his gun completely miss him. 

They were both forced to move forward, trying to force him in between them, in the correct position for them to attack him as Logos' had decided on- different angles at the exact same time. It took several well-aimed slices and bullets and glitched Thomas had even managed to teleport once more before they got him where they wanted him.

Raising his gun, Logos shot a bullet, which glitched Thomas rose up a shield to defend against. But at the same time, Deceit moved forwards, swinging his sickle directly down onto the glitched Thomas. His aim was true, and his blade sunk deep. 

Glitched Thomas screamed. Logos covered his ears quickly and Deceit groaned, trying to twist away as much as possible without letting go of his sickle. The scream hurt- it echoed and twisted and pounded directly into their ears like a bomb had gone off inside of the glitched Thomas' voice. 

The body flashed several bright colors, and with another final bright flash, was gone. Noise causing damage to the ears and blight causing damage to the eyes. Frustrating, truly.  _ "What a fun death," _ Deceit said sarcastically. "I expected more blood. A bit disappointing."

Logos had to agree, though it was still interesting. Both of the twisted sides checked to make sure their ears and sight were fine, and that they weren't injured. Neither cared about the other, but both cared enough about themselves to want to check. In the end, they seemed fine though. "That fight felt rather pointless," Deceit complained.

Logos frowned and nodded. Didn't Logan claim he was the last thing Logos' would face as well? Glitched Thomas... he had felt like a warning of sorts. He hadn't even wanted to fight them, and he hadn't tried very hard either. Maybe he wasn't even dead. Rarely did things truly die in Thomas' head. 

Deceit didn't seem all that worried about it, he only gestured towards one of the cave walls, in which a door had appeared. Of course, another magical door, just like Logos' had deduced. "Let us continue," Deceit drawled, smirking.

Well it's not like they could go back, and there was only one door, what else did Deceit expect truthfully? Still, Logos nodded, and they both stepped forwards and through the doorway, without a flicker of hesitation this time around. For some reason, they both felt like it would be fine.

A flash of bright light later, and something new came into view. It was another room, of course, another cavern, but there was the sound of running water. A large pool was in the middle of the room, it's water bright blue despite the lack of a sky (water reflects blue from the sky, hence why indoors water is clear but outdoor lakes, oceans and seas are drawn in with blue), the surface sparkling softly. A small waterfall came out of the wall and fell into the water, the water hitting a wall and traveling under the stone, leading to who knows where.

But Logos and Deceit weren't the only ones there.   
  



	10. Chapter 10

Once they had finished 'dealing' with Pathos, Virgil and Roman had tried to look for a way to the pool without jumping down the trapdoor into darkness, where anything could be. In the end, despite their searching, they couldn't find anything. The forest was quiet and void of any more attacks, other then the upheaved dirt hiding their collaboration. Virgil paced over the dirt as they struggled to think, patting it down beneath him so it was smooth and flat, hiding what they had done even better.

"I don't think we have a choice," Roman finally said, narrowing his eyes at the closed trapdoor. Reluctantly, Virgil nodded in agreement. He glanced around one last time, hoping there would be rope or vine, or anything to lower them down. But in a dead twisted forest, materials like that weren't just going to be laying around.

Sighing, Virgil and Roman walked over to the trapdoor, glancing it over. "It wasn't like this last time you came down here?" Virgil asked, remembering Roman's tale of how he had first discovered the pool, having come down here while searching for a way to destroy their leader.

Roman shook his head no though, dispelling Virgil's thoughts and hopes. "It changes every time," he explained, shrugging. He crouched down, opening the trapdoor, talking all the while. "I believe it should be safe, but we do have to remember this is Thomas' mind. Deceit, lies, and danger are woven in the same way everything else is. Even if it looks safe, feels safe, it might not be." He looked up at Virgil, who was frowning. This speech wasn't exactly making him feel better. "We don't have a choice," Roman reminded him, making Virgil roll his eyes. He knew that.

In a fluid movement, without any warning, Roman jumped down the hole. He didn't make a sound or cry out, and Virgil waited for a minute, but he didn't hear him hit the bottom. He didn't hear anything- no talking, no movement, no screaming. But, well, unless he wanted to stay here by himself... breathing out slowly, Virgil jumped down the trapdoor.

It was a shortfall, only a few seconds, and then he landed on his feet in an underground cave. Looking up, he saw only smooth roof in front of him. "I was wondering if you weren't going to come." Virgil looked over at Roman, and his eyes caught on the pool. It had to be what Roman was talking about it. It was bright blue in color and even had a small waterfall, and Virgil could feel it calling to him, beckoning him closer. 

Answering the call, Virgil moved closer to the pool. Roman sent him a sharp look and went to talk, but they weren't alone for long. "Where's Pathos?" a sharp voice demanded, making the pair tense and turn. Logos and Deceit had walked out from an opening in the cavern. Scanning them, Roman decided they looked fine. Whatever they had gone through, they hadn't taken much damage. Clearly they didn’t have to fight messed up mutant monsters like they had.

Virgil stepped forwards before Roman could answer the question, crossing his arms lightly over his chest. "We should all exchange stories," he offered, and though Logos frowned, Deceit nodded slowly, focusing his dark, empty stare on Virgil. 

Logos glanced in between Virgil and Deceit, narrowing his eyes further. Clearly, the logical side and the lying side were suspicious, not that Virgil or Roman could blame that- they were missing someone, they would blame them more if they weren't suspicious.

Seeing as neither of the other two looked willing to talk, Virgil sighed, guessing he was expected to go ahead and explain. "We entered another forest," he explained, arms still over his chest acting like a wall between him and the duo. "It was different than the first one- putrid, dark, evil, so on. We were attacked by all manners of creatures, and fought our way through them and deeper into the forest."

Roman was nodding along, his hand tight on the grip of his sword even as he seemed to be in agreement with what Virgil was saying. "We continued on until we got to a large creature," Roman said, ignoring Virgil's sharp stare when he took over. The anxious side didn't seem to think Roman could lie correctly, seeming to forget that Roman had been lying this entire mission. "It was difficult to fight, but we managed to kill it in the end. It was guarding a trapdoor, which leads here."

Virgil hopped in once more, taking over quickly just as Roman had done. "We were trying to decide if it was safe or not," he declared, tilting his head a bit. "It was dark, and we couldn't see any end to its depth. While we were trying to decide, Pathos tried to kill us, saying something about how this room was important and he couldn't have us stopping him. It was clear he was the traitor at that point, and he had attacked us, so we killed him and left him behind. He should wake up in a few hours."

It was good they hadn't claimed that they had denied the chance of joining Pathos, something Logos and Deceit would have seen through. No side would deny an offer of power, but every side would attack, fight, and kill someone who tried to attack them first, claiming they would get in the way. For that reason only, their story seemed to be holding. 

It wasn't like Logos and Deceit didn't seem hesitant about their explanation, but they didn't outright deny it, though Logos was frowning. "This room is important?" he repeated, looking at Deceit.

Roman narrowed his eyes. "Don't change the subject, your turn now," he said quickly before Deceit could reply with whatever he was planning to say. Cook up a lie about what the room did, or be truthful and hope Logos and the others would still back him? They'd know in a moment.

Logos seemed annoyed too even as he turned back to Virgil and Roman. "Not much happened," he snarled between his teeth. "We were separated, and each faced with our own enemy, and then one together. We killed them all, and moved onwards into this room." The explanation was flimsy, and it didn't hold much information, but it wasn't like Virgil or Roman were worried about Logos being the traitor, so they nodded slowly, accepting the explanation. 

Logos cast his gaze around once more, nodding softly as he seemed to come to the conclusion that the conversation of 'where have you been' was complete. "Should we continue-?"

Before Logos could even finish his sentence Deceit interrupted. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?" he questioned dryly.  _ "That's clearly showing well."  _ Logos frowned at the attack on himself, tensing slightly, eyes glittering murderously. Since it was Deceit who had insulted him, he had no choice but to stand there and take it though. 

Instead, he just turned to face their leader better, bowing his head, the fire in his eyes directed instead to the ground. "You seem to be implying that I'm missing something," Logos prompted, not missing Deceit's tiny noise of amusement, practically verifying his words. 

Logos waited for Deceit to explain, and explain he did. "This is the end," Deceit said. Moving past Logos, Deceit moved to the edge of the still flowing water, staring into the clear liquid as though it held secrets only he could view. "This is it, Logos. The center of Thomas' mind- I suppose you could call it his soul. Whoever has control leads, and of course, that someone is me."

Now Logos was watching the pool of water differently, eyes narrowed and dark. It wasn’t hard to imagine what he could be thinking, what all of them were thinking. Ignoring Logos, Virgil stepped forwards quickly. "How do you have control?" he asked hesitantly.

Deceit looked over at Virgil, and frowned, as though wondering if the anxious side truly deserved an answer to his question. In the end, it looked like he came to the decision that the information would be harmless. "This isn't the first time we've been here," he explained quietly, circling the pool. "We came when Thomas' was very young, and there I beat you, and took control. I remembered since I hold all memories, but the rest of you forgot."

Roman and Virgil narrowed their eyes. Deceit didn't even bother to hide it, it was like he was flaunting the fact he was the leader because he had 'won' in a fight between them when they were but toddlers, and because of that he had somehow been allowed to have immeasurable power. Not that he did now, thanks to the envious king’s actions.

Even Logos looked bothered, but unlike the other two, he brushed it off quickly. "Can you take control back?" he asked Deceit. "We need to take control, wake Thomas' up, get Pathos, and then all of us can leave." Noticing Roman's look, he sighed. "No, we can't leave Pathos down here- we need to punish him properly, and make sure he still does his job. We can restrict him in his room and impale him with knives or something along that line of action."

Virgil, despite the tenseness in the air and knowing what was to come, smirked a bit at the mental image. He imagined it in perfect clarity, how blades would sink into Pathos' skin, holding him in place. Every twitch and writhe just digging the metal deeper inside of Pathos' body, unable to escape, snarling and hissing in beautiful agony. Beside him, Roman shivered.

Stopping in front of the pool, Deceit waved Logos over. Logos, acting like the dog he was, moved over to stand beside Deceit, joining him by gazing into the water. Roman and Virgil moved closer as well. They didn't have great plans, didn't know exactly what was going to happen next, so they needed to stay close, tense, and ready. One way or another, they weren’t going to let this happen without a fight.

If they were a second late, if they hesitated for even a moment, their plans could crash and burn all around them. Their lying leader would take command once more, pushing them all into the background once again, and that wasn't something they were willing to let happen, even if they had to lay down their freedom, their souls, and even their lives. They may not die, but they could be buried alive like Pathos. Locked away for a long eternity.  

"Stand across from me," Deceit snapped, and Logos moved around the pool so that he was standing on the side opposite from Deceit. "We need two willing sides to open the pool," Deceit explained. He held his hands out over the water, spreading his fingers out, and gesturing for Logos to copy him. Logos watched Deceit's actions carefully, trying to imitate them perfectly. In the end, Deceit was the actor with the body-shifting abilities though, so it wasn't perfect.

Deceit made that part clear with his growl as he watched Logos. Roman, playing his part, laughed sharply. "Intelligence can't get you through everything," the suppressed king taunted. "Where it really counts- the actions -you will always fail, 'Logic.'"

Grinding his teeth, Logos seemed to be trying to ignore Roman, but with the added taunts he seemed to go faster and try harder, making Roman's taunts helpful to speed things up. Virgil was frowning, and made eye contact with Roman, wondering if they should be doing something to stop this yet. Roman shook his head no, ever so slightly from side to side.

Never let it be said that Virgil trusts Roman, but he was aware of the nasty fact that Roman understood this better than him, as he was the one who set up the situation, so he looked away. Deceit and Logos had dipped their bare hands in the water, and Deceit ordered Logos to concentrate and imagine himself sending power into the pool, telling it to open for them.

The middle of the water started to glow with a soft, golden light. Virgil and Roman leaned forwards for a better look. The light was growing thick, like golden goop, and started to shimmer, like gold. No, that wasn't it, the description of gold wasn't good enough. It shivered and shone like millions of suns had been inserted into its matter, and it spread out quickly through the water. It took several moments for it to spread evenly, but when it did, they were standing in front of a completely golden, shimmering pool of sunlight.

None of them were fans of the bright, happy, beautiful aesthetic, but the golden water was captivating, no matter what type of decoration you normally enjoyed. Even they had to admit at least that much as they observed the glistening that shone so heavily against the walls and the ceiling, lighting the room up from the bottom to the top.

Deceit and Logos stood up. They looked slightly dizzy, and Roman internally laughed. If this 'activation' made them weak or tired, then Virgil and himself were pretty much set. Not that it could be the only step, or how could the mindscape differentiate in between Logos and Deceit as it's so-called leader?

"Is it done?" Virgil asked. He was seeking more information, wishing that they could be given a step-by-step process. But even if this wasn't a huge, life-changing occasion, Deceit always held his cards close to his chest. Even with things like recipes or chores, he would refuse to answer any question you could potentially give him. It was just who he was, honestly.

Saying that, it was hardly a surprise when Deceit ignored him. Virgil looked over at Logos instead, searching for any clues from the other that could point him in the direction of what he should be doing now, but if he was looking for clues he got none. Logos was easier to read then Deceit, but it didn't mean he was EASY to read. In Virgil's eyes, it was pretty clear Logos didn't know what was going on either anyways. He was just as clueless.

Nothing to do but wait then. It wasn't going to be much longer now, and as soon as Deceit made a move that they should clearly stop, they would do so. Deceit scanned the room, and then the pool as if making sure that it was working alright. Finally, he smirked, as though things had finally gone his way.

Virgil watched Deceit carefully with narrowed eyes, body tense. In a moment, Deceit tugged out his sickle, holding his hand flat in front of him. Watching, Virgil watched Deceit sliced it across his own flesh, the skin splitting. Turning, Deceit held his hand over the water, intending to allow the blood to drip inside. "Virgil-!"

He didn't need the verbal warning, he wasn't an idiot. Virgil moved fast, slamming his body into Deceit's and elbowing the arm holding the sickle out of the way as they landed on the ground, hard. There was a moment of dazed shock as limbs flailed everywhere and they tried to gain their bearings before Virgil ripped his knife out and sliced down at Deceit's throat with a loud, animalistic snarl.

Deceit had taken the pause to get his bearings as well though, and metal clanged against metal, the sharp echoing sound filling the room and bouncing off the walls as sparks flew from their blades. Deceit had summoned his sickle back into his hand and was already twisting the blade and moving his body, shoving Virgil back and forcing him into a painful position so that the anxious side was forced to pull back.

It didn't matter though. The entire thing hadn't been meant to be a full fight, he had just needed to knock Deceit down for a moment, stop him in time to... "No!" Deceit cried out sharply, actual horror in his voice for maybe the first time any of the sides could remember.

They both twisted to watch as Roman's scarlet blood fell, mixing with the golden water, and sealing their fates.


	11. Chapter 11

Roman felt like the universe had tilted towards him the moment his blood had hit the golden water. The universe, of course, was only Thomas' mind, accepting his role as the new leader of all the twisted sides, allowing him to take control of it, just as Deceit had done for all of those long years. For all of those too long years. All of those undeserving years, Deceit walking around with his head held high and a smirk plastered on his face as if it actually meant something, some imaginary crown won when they were all children. 

In the eyes of Roman, he was only fixing things, showing Deceit (a liar, the true traitor, not that it was a surprise- his name was literally Deceit) what it meant to be on the bottom. Where he truly belonged, where he should have been all along. This mattered, after all. This had been a true fight, and Roman had won.

Roman was the king after all, and he wasn't just saying that. He was the one who had turned Thomas into who he was today, who had fed him the daydreams of blood and pain, who had sent him staring out the window, gazing into a world of bodies. Bodies hanging from the roof with rope, faces and necks bruising and changing colors, people chained to walls, ankles staining purple and red and blue, the heavy breathing and noises of the suffering. Of those in pain. He wore the crown. He was the king. Deceit had taken his spot, and he had taken it back.

Once his blood had hit the water, the world bent to him, and it seemed to move slower like time was slowing just so that he could take charge, stand up straight, and decide what he wanted to do now. He was the one who could make that decision, and the thought was enough to make him shiver and smirk, gazing down at Deceit, still on the floor, Virgil crouched over him.

"How dare you," Deceit breathed out. His eyes were alight with fury, lips curled into a tight scowl, staring at Roman as though his very gaze would set him aflame. Deceit's eyes flickered away from Roman, just for a moment, to glance at Virgil, making Roman fight the urge to carve out his eyes slowly, tearing until they ripped out of his skull. "You as well," Deceit muttered, "not that I can be surprised. You were always weak."

"Weak?" Virgil replied. Roman still hadn't spoken. This was going to be his dramatic reveal speech, and he had to get it perfect. "Yes," Virgil said sarcastically, "that's how we beat you. Because we were weak." He was keeping a close eye on Deceit, always the one who worried, always the one who kept plans from going off their rails and exploding. Roman was lucky to have Virgil on his side, of course, Roman was still the one in charge, but if he pushed Virgil away now, Virgil would end up betraying him. For now, at least, he had to play 'nice.'

Roman hated playing nice. Deceit moved to stand up. Remembering how Deceit had silenced them, making it impossible for them to talk, Roman decided now was a good time to test out his own abilities. It didn't take much. A twitch of his fingers and Deceit was shoved down by an invisible hand, held flat against the ground. With another twisting motion, Deceit's mouth moved, but he didn't speak. Both Roman and Virgil smiled, pleased with the image, the real-life version of their very best dreams.

"I suppose Pathos didn't backstab you," Logos said sharply, and both Roman and Virgil turned towards him. They had forgotten that he was there just for a moment, focusing on the larger predator. Of course, Logos had noticed their slip of attention, and it annoyed him for sure. He was important, the most important chess piece on this board because he hadn't made a choice of who to join yet. (That's what he told himself anyways, but in his eyes, he was always the best).

Virgil stepped over Deceit. He couldn't move or even talk, so worrying about him was pointless now. After seeing the power Roman had shown off, Virgil wasn't too worried either way. How could Deceit beat that? It was impossible the way he was now, just like it had been impossible for them to stand up to the dictator not long ago. 

Virgil did take care to 'accidentally' step on Deceit's fingers though, digging his metal enforced heel down. The crunch of bone was like music to his ears. "Pathos did attack us," Virgil pointed out. It was true, kind of. "Well, he attacked Roman- for 'revenge' or 'fun' or whatever. Roman won, clearly. I watched." Virgil grinned, his smile not unlike that of a shark. 

Logos used his own mind, placing the puzzle pieces together. "Roman told you the truth," he diagnosed, and Virgil nodded. Logos turned his gaze towards Roman next, who still hadn't been very verbal. 

Finally, he spoke. "Deceit has abused us all this time," he said, focused on Logos. "He has beaten us down with unfair power, crushed us like dust under his foot, treated us like nothing short of garbage based on something from many years past. Yet you would follow him? Fight for him? What has he done to earn your loyalty? You would be the plaything of a man who has personally mocked you, used you, and thrown you away again and again... if so, then go ahead."

Roman opened his arms up like he was offering a hug. The twisted sides didn't hug though, of course. "I was always meant to be a king," Roman insisted as if the words were the only fact. "I was always meant to rule. We are twisted, there is no doubt, and I cannot claim to suddenly become a kind leader. But a good king, even a twisted king, knows a kingdom cannot be ruled by one's self. Logos, I implore you- join us. Turn your back on Deceit, and join the kingdom we can have today."

Virgil was already getting bored. It didn't matter what Logos said. If he refused, he would face a fate like Deceit, and would be out of the way. If he accepted, he would do his job, just like with Deceit. It was no difference to him, and of course, if Logos was truly their 'logic' there was only one option he could truly pick, was there not?

He could refuse, but logically, why would he? There would be no pros- only cons -and anyone should be able to see that mostly empty list and make a choice based on it. The logical choice, right?

In Logos' mind, there was one problem. Logos believed in Deceit to a certain degree. Of course, Roman's observations were correct- Deceit wasn't a good leader, but the thing was, another thing Roman had said was also correct... none of them were 'good.' Roman was going to go down the same path Deceit had.

Logos had already followed Deceit. He had served him, and it hadn't been fun, but it had worked out for Thomas' life. Deceit was self-preservation in one of its most pure forms, and he was intelligent. He knew what had to be done to help Thomas in his life, to help Thomas achieve all of his dreams, no matter what those dreams may be... but he knew how to be realistic. He knew how to not go too far.

Thomas had never killed anyone, or even seriously hurt anyone before (yet, at least). If Roman took control, the Thomas that Logos could see would be a different one altogether. The type of killer who walked into a store with a hatchet and killed everyone with no gloves on, no mask on, no way to hide, the kind of killer that had his face plastered across the world in a quick moment, and the kind of killer who got caught in two hours. That was why, if he was forced to pick between Roman and Deceit, he would always, without fail, pick Deceit. 

Logos made eye contact with Deceit. He was angry, watching Logos, but there was a strange glint in the eye, and Logos knew, despite everything he just thought... Deceit would understand if Logos picked Roman.

In the end, despite Logos' thoughts, despite the truth in all of those thoughts, there was no way he could pick Deceit now because Deceit wasn't an option. Picking Deceit would be picking death, or the closet version of it the sides could get to. If he really wanted to help Thomas, he needed to keep as much control as he could, for now, needed to keep his place as Logic, needed to try and not let Thomas' do stupid things. He had to keep Thomas from getting caught and thrown into jail for the rest of his life, as that was a fate they were all willing to put in an effort to avoid as much as they could.

Either way, it was a choice of two unreal choices, a choice in between two bad choices, a choice with nowhere left to turn towards. Roman cleared his throat, and Logos glanced over at him. "I will kill you," Roman said in a calm, collected tone. As though this entire thing, this entire process, was just another normal, everyday activity. A stroll in the park, if you would. 

Logos sighed inwardly, but not outwardly. He always kept everything on the inside, stacked up on top of each other. All of those hidden thoughts, those sticky emotions that didn't need to see the light of day. He was right, in the end, there was no real choice here. He made eye-contact with Deceit once more. Deceit looked calm now, just a bit frustrated if anything. It wasn't what Logos had expected from him, but he wasn't really sure what he had expected. "Fine," Logos said, looking at Roman. "I accept then. I'll join you."

He would do his best to keep them in order, to keep them in their places, until the day Thomas' slipped away from them once and for all. May that day be far away into the future, not a problem they'd have to face for a very long time. 

Roman smiled widely at Logan, baring his teeth. Finally, at long last, he left the pools side, moving forwards. He gestured for them, and Logos and Virgil moved forwards as well, so they were all standing close together. Roman's sword was held tightly in his hand now, and he waved it in front of him like he was fending off some invisible enemy. He was being dramatic of course, not that he ever wasn't dramatic that is. 

They gave him a moment. This had to be overwhelming, even for him. This change, it was going to make everything different- nothing would be the same from now onwards. "I," Roman said, standing up more, and smirking down at the pair, "am your new king. Not that Deceit ever really called himself 'king' but I figure the title is up for the taking whether or not he had."

Virgil shifted his weight from side to side, frowning just a bit. He wasn't sure if he liked this, all of a sudden. He had agreed to help Roman to get out of his old position of being only a pet, more like a slave than anything else. But now, here he was, being placed into the same kind of light. A servant to their king, their new leader; whatever you wanted to call him worked really. Besides, was Roman even capable of leading them? Virgil was willing to give him a chance, but his mind was already following the same path that Logos' mind had gone down.

Frowning, Roman quickly caught onto Virgil, noticing the pinched expression on his face and reading into it right away. "Do not worry, Virgil," he said quickly. "You will rule with me, not under me. Punishments with myself are for when they are truly needed, I do not hurt my subjects unless I need to teach a lesson. I will listen to you."

It wasn't comforting. The twisted sides didn't comfort each other, they just made promises. A lot of the time the promises were real, but just as often they were fake, crippled lies spun up in webs of treachery, and a deep thirst for power. Power, more and more power. It was like a drug for them, they'd drag in power until they drowned in it.

As they spoke, they didn't notice Deceit, slowly wriggling his way under Roman's power. Roman had used his powers, and yes, you wouldn't assume those abilities were easy to wiggle out of. But Roman was still new at using the energy from the golden pool. He hadn't even known about its existence until recently. Deceit had been using that power, manipulating it to his own dark needs, for years. Even with a small amount of his original energy, he could slide it under Roman's loose, unpracticed bounds, and slowly work himself out of the grip of his invisible chains, the coffin he was trapped inside unwillingly. 

All it took was a little wiggle, a little wisp of energy to free his way out. A tiny nudge here and there, and a lot of power.

Deceit wasn't happy with this situation, not that his opinion was much of a huge surprise, who would be happy about being betrayed, getting stripped of their god-like abilities, and thrown into the dirt as well as muted? No one sane, that was for sure. He understood Logos' choice at least. He had seen the looks the logical side had cast him, and he knew that the logical side didn't have any other choice. If he sided with Deceit, he would die.

Well, not if Deceit had anything to say about the matter. As Logos finally gave in, and Roman started to go about his dramatic speech, the bonds holding Deceit flush against the ground broke. Inwardly smiling, Deceit started to work on the ones holding him silent, inwardly imagining how fun it would be soon to slice into those two traitors. Normally Virgil was his favorite chew-toy, but this time all of his fun torture would have to be focused more on Roman. He was the one that had come up with this entire plan, the one trying to become a king, the one Deceit hated the most in this moment.

The bonds keeping him quiet where even more simple to break if anything. It was an ability Deceit himself had used very often, so he knew how it worked incredibly well, knew exactly how to dismantle it (and build it up) on a step to step basis. In another moment it shattered as well, the remains of the broken ability settling down around him. Deceit licked his lips, the air in his throat feeling lighter, cooler then it had just a moment before.

Roman had just finished informing Virgil that he was going to be a 'good king.' Deceit rolled his eyes. It didn't matter what kind of king Roman was planning on being- because he wasn't going to be king. "Logos, play nice with Virgil while I'm away," Deceit purred. Roman tensed and spun towards him shocked, but before he could do anything, Deceit moved, throwing himself forwards.

Together, Deceit and Roman fell into the water, getting swallowed by the glittering gold together, trapped in their final battle of the fairytale. 


	12. Chapter 12

It didn't take but a moment for Logos and Virgil to start moving. Virgil threw himself downwards quickly, avoiding a bullet flying above him at just the right moment. Already, Virgil's heart was beating fast. He had a knife, and Logos had a gun, and there was a reason 'never bring a knife to a gun fight' was a saying that people often use!

He had no choice but to dive behind the nearest cover, a low section of overhanging rocks, barely avoiding another bullet- it brushed past him, and he felt a burning pain in one of his arms. Already blood was starting to soak into his clothes, the bandages he kept under them collecting the blood quickly. It was a small injury though, and would only take a moment to heal. "Logically, you won't win this fight," Logos said, and he sounded so sure of himself, it made Virgil want to scream. "Give in," Logos said, still trying to reason with him. "Perhaps Deceit won't be as upset with you if you give in now."

Virgil didn't care if Deceit was upset with him or not, Deceit didn't matter. Not here, not now, and hopefully... not ever again. Logos' voice seemed to be getting closer, and Virgil waited with bated breath. After a moment, the footsteps sounded right behind him, and Virgil took this chance as the only one he may get.

Standing up he turned quickly, swiping down his knife. He had timed it correctly at least- Logos was close enough to hit, and he did hit some kind of flesh. He knew that if only from the heavy pressure fighting against the descent of his knife, and the clear view of  scarlet blood. Logos was prepared as well though, and the gun went off, a bullet tearing into Virgil's arm in a moment. It hurt- no, it burned and ached, and it was terrible, but Virgil was used to this.

He was used to the pain. The only worry now, was what bullet did Logan use? Was it truly a normal bullet, or was it possible he might have been poisoned? He didn't have time to think. The second the bullet tore into him, Virgil threw himself at Logos, knocking them both to the floor, sticky red blood pooling between where their bodies touched. Virgil focused on the gun, managing to smack it away from Logos' hand, before aiming to slit his throat open.

Logos knocked his weight over though, rolling and pinning Virgil under him this time before he had the chance. "You should be the one giving in," Virgil forced out, speaking Logos' earlier words, as his own knife went flying next. Now they were both weaponless, forced to rely only on their own limbs and physical strength to continue the fight. 

Logos wrapped his hands tightly around Virgil's throat and squeezed. Jerking under him, Virgil opened his mouth, desperately trying to inhale. It felt terrible, that type of constriction. It was heavy and made his throat feel thick and painful, the world already started to darken with black spots and blur around him. Using all of his strength, he raised his hand, slamming it on the back of Logos' head. It hurt his hand just as much as it hurt Logos, maybe more, but it worked- Logos let go with a sharp snarl of pain, and Virgil managed to throw his weight off.

At the same moment, both of their eyes fixed on the gun. They glanced at each other for hardly a second, and then both lunged at the same time, bodies struggling to go faster, as well as shove the other aside at the same time. Logos managed to grasp the hilt of the gun, but Virgil wasn't far behind, and he reached for the gun as well, digging his sharp nails into Logos' hand and drawing more blood from the other side. Cursing, Logos tried to hold tighter, but as Virgil pressed his nails downwards, they ripped into both Logos' skin and muscle, and Logos let go with yet another snarl of pain.

Smirking, Virgil grasped the gun. He rolled away from Logos quickly before it could be ripped from him, and rose into a crouch, aiming the gun quickly, his breaths coming out as heavy inhales and exhales. "Looks like I won," he managed to whisper, smirking at Logos. "Should have given in when I gave you the option, Logos."

Raising the gun, Virgil switched it from Logos' chest to his head. After all, the brain was the most important thing to the other side, correct? So... why not destroy? 

He pulled down on the trigger, his laughter echoing as a gooey mess of blood and brain matter exploded all around them, Logos' heavy body falling to the floor, a limp pile of limbs without the person behind it all.

~

As soon as they fell into the golden water, Roman noticed that he could still breath. The golden water could be breathed as easily as air, and despite the fact you'd think it would be impossible to see in, Roman could see Deceit perfectly- Deceit, shoving him down, Deceit, with his dark, furious eyes and twisted snarl, Deceit, who was trying to kill him.

Deceit's sickle aimed for his head, and Roman barely managed to twist away. In a moment, the golden water flashed black, and suddenly they weren't in the water- they weren't anywhere, not truly. Coughing, golden glittering trails falling down his chin, Roman sat up from where he was sprawled across the ground, gazing around what seemed like nothing but the dark abyss. It didn't take long to fix his sights on where they belonged though, that being Deceit.

Deceit was glaring around at the abyss as though it were familiar to him, a scowl already on his face. He seemed to put it out of his mind after a moment though, focusing back Roman. "I suppose we're going to be fighting here then," he said. "Some people just can't mind their own business."

Roman didn't exactly understand what it was Deceit was referring to at that moment, but he couldn't find it within himself to care either. His task was straightforward: kill Deceit, rip his undeserved crown from his head, and crush the dirty liar under his foot, taking his place as king to all the other sides, turning them into his servants. Nothing more than underlings.

Deceit was still holding onto his sickle, and Roman drew out his blade as Deceit rushed forwards at him, using his own knife to block the attack, deflecting a shot from taking his eye out. "Not the face," Roman muttered, narrowing his eyes. "Not everyone can afford damage there, just because you have bruised eyes and ugly scaly skin..."

It was a weak attack, compared to all the things Roman could have said, but Deceit still replied, as he aimed for another slice, Roman blocking this one as well. The two were exchanging lightning fast blows, though Roman seemed to be mostly on the defensive right now, too content with his words. "Not everyone is as vain as you," Deceit hissed, sounding almost truly snake-like at that moment, rage distorting his speech. 

Suddenly switching tactics, Roman threw his weight forwards, lunging his knife forwards. He aimed for Deceit's chest, throwing all his strength and power into the motion, aiming to wound, a bloody and scarlet blur of passion. 

Clearly, he didn't truly think it out, because all Deceit had to do was quickly move to the side to send Roman falling to the ground. "Just like always, you end up under me," Deceit whispered, a cruel smile on his face. He felt vindictive this way, and to be true, Roman felt pathetic- here on the ground, weak, Deceit's words for once rang true in his ears.

Deceit didn't allow his chance to go waste though, all mocking aside. Roman cried out between his teeth as a sharp blade slammed into his back, shoving him down against the ground. To get up would push the weapon deeper inside him, and it already hurt enough, ripping through his skin and flesh as easy as cutting through water, sending waves of pain from his back. All this time, Roman had told himself, over and over that he could win, that he would bring Deceit down, but now, laying there, weak and in pain...

Could he? 

To get up would be to drive the blade deeper in his back, but Roman refused to give up now, like this, weak and pathetic and throwing his crown away. He stood up. The blade sunk in deeper, and it was as though his back was on fire, as though it were being flayed and ripped and burned all at once. Grunting against the pain he ripped himself forward, the blade tearing out with a wet, slick noise, ripping and tearing him up more then he had already been.

When he turned around, even Deceit looked surprised by his painful, angry actions, as Roman stood shakily, panting and covered in blood. He couldn't stand straight, and it wasn't going to be an easy fight, but he had to try- "You're an idiot," Deceit muttered. Another weapon appeared in his other hand. It was a whip, long and covered in barbs, and, above all, it was long distance-

Swinging it forwards, it caught tightly around Roman's throat, ripping his skin there open, and sending him down to his knees with a tug. "Like that little show was going to make you win," Deceit whispered, smiling cruelly. "In the end, you are forever pathetic."

The last thing Roman knew was complete pain, self-hatred, and anger, then the searing anguish of a blade slicing deep into his heart, before the entire world, in his eyes... faded into blackness. 

As soon as Roman's eyes slipped close and his body went limp, the world around the two faded back into the golden water. Deceit reluctantly grabbed Roman's dead, bloody weight, unwilling to go back into the pool later after he dealt with the results of whatever had gone on outside of the water. Pushing to the top, Deceit tossed Roman up so he wasn't about to slide into the water, before slipping up out of the water himself, discarding his heavy, waterlogged cape quickly as he observed the scene he had come across.

Logos was dead, that much was clear if the brain splattered around on the ground was an indication. Virgil was already looking over at Deceit, his eyes flickering between Roman and him, disgust and annoyance quickly sliding over his face. Deceit wasn't the one Virgil had hoped to crawl out of that pool. 

"Change your mind on your loyalties yet?" Deceit demanded sharply, squeezing his barbed whip in one hand and his sickle in the other. Virgil rolled his eyes sharply, brushing some of his hair from out of his eyes.

Already smirking, looking down on Deceit with a dark expression. In his eyes, Deceit was no longer worthy of his respect. All he felt towards his once leader was contempt; disdain burning through his heart. "Oh yes, because a soaked, angry looking retard is going to scare me."

"Afraid of water, hissy bitch?" Deceit replied, yellow eye practically glowing. His barbed wire smacked out, cutting through the air, and Virgil tried to step back, but the material caught around his wrist. You'd think it would be easy to rip his arm away, but the barbs attached, sinking into his skin, and the whip felt a lot stronger then it looked. In a quick, fluid motion, Deceit drew his arm back, forcing Virgil to step forwards or fall.

It was almost like Deceit had forgotten that Virgil still had Deceit's gun. With baited breath, Virgil raised the gun, and shot- but unlike with Logos, he didn't aim for the head or even the heart. He aimed for the leg. He wasn't about to give Deceit a painless, merciful death. It could be considered sadistic, but Virgil wanted Deceit to truly suffer, just like Deceit had made him suffer for so long. 

The bullet entered Deceit's leg and didn't exit out the other side, which was even better in Virgil's eyes. There'd be no way for Deceit's leg to heal if the bullet didn't leave the wound since healing around a bullet just meant he'd have to cut into himself and rip it out later. Cursing, Deceit's leg gave out, and he ended up on the ground, but the barbed wire was still tight around Virgil- all it took was a quick tug to send Virgil to the ground with him, blood dripping quickly from his wrist. With the ammount of spilled crimson, it was likely that Deceit had sliced directly into his vein. 

"Should have killed me," Deceit said, as if there was someway he could still win this fight, even with a leg unusable. Virgil rolled his eyes again, firmly under the belief that he as good as won at this point, not taking Deceit's threat as seriously as he might later on regret. 

With a flick of Deceit's hand, the whip suddenly fell around from Virgil, making Virgil start in surprise. It really was an interesting weapon that Deceit owned, and he was surprised he hadn't seen it beforehand. Why did the lying side only take it out now? Why wait until this type of situation, when the weapon could have come in use in so many other types of situations?

Well, it's not like he could sit Deceit down for a cup of tea and ask him. Virgil drew himself back, his previously bound wrist limp and painful. It was still bleeding, though not as badly, and the stained bruises around the injury were swiftly beginning to fade. He couldn't move fast enough through- the whip lashed out again, this time moving around Virgil's chest, dragging him down to the ground and holding him steady.

Virgil tried to squirm out of the whip but stopped quickly because of the horrifying amounts of pain the feeling brought him. "Looks like you and Roman have similar problems," Deceit panted with an angry snarl. "You both keep letting your guard down and assuming that I'm weaker then I am. You both forgot your places, which are, as I already explained to Roman- under me."

Deceit tried to push himself back to his feet, but he really couldn't manage. Instead, he was forced to drag himself over to Virgil, finally sitting next to him with a smirk. "Look at you," he whispered, tilting his head. "All tied up. We're so close to each other, and you can't even do anything to fight back against me, can you? What happened to you beating me? To all of your contempt? I thought I was weaker than you? That I could never beat you, that you and Roman were going to rule?"

"Shut up!" Virgil snapped, body jerking against his bonds. "You cheated, you had more power than we ever had, and you used a victory as a child to abuse us and treat us like nothing more than garbage under your heel."

"This victory wasn't as a child, and Roman had the pool's power... and I still beat you," Deceit replied, his voice calm now. "You can't claim I had help or anything like that...."

"Simply put Virgil... I win."

Then, just like with Roman, a blade was driven through Virgil's skull, and the last thing he saw was Deceit's wide, fanged grin.

_ "I win." _


	13. Chapter 13

"The corruption of the pool is what was causing Thomas' mind to break," Logos explained simply, watching Deceit from a distance. Pathos glared forward, still brushing dirt off his clothes, tugging to get it out of all the creases. He didn't really seem to be listening to Logos, but Logos continued on anyways. "Now that Deceit is back in control of the pool, he has the ability to fix the key. Originally, I suppose Roman would have fixed it after he claimed full control if things had gone his way."

Despite not paying attention, when Roman's name was said, Pathos perked up, turning towards the logical side. "Where is he?" Pathos asked, tone of voice oh so sweet. Logos sighed, pitched black eyes flickering over towards Pathos and connecting with the other's own matching eyes. 

"I know you wish to get your 'revenge,'" Logos intoned blankly, "but I'm sure Deceit will give you a chance to hurt them at some point, so try to calm down a bit. There's no point in getting so worked up." His words didn't calm Pathos down, of course, nothing ever calmed Pathos down once he got in a mood. Being buried alive had definitely put him in one of those so-called moods. 

Either way, they both turned towards Deceit again. They were in the subconscious, the three of them, and now the center had been fixed. Once a broken lock, it was now a tree. The tree stretched on above them, bark dying and peeling, devoid of any sign of life. There were no leaves, and the ground around it was dead as well, loose dirt instead of sprawling grass. Deceit, who had been kneeling under the tree, stood up, slipping his cape from where it had been hanging over his shoulder and slipping it back around his shoulders once more. 

"If I could see those two traitors," Pathos started talking, voice dripping with sadism, "I would tear them up, limb from limb, and devour them whole." Logos rolled his eyes softly, dismissing the other's words. Pathos was upset, and he didn't doubt what he said, but he knew that Pathos was obsessed with all the other sides, and wouldn't ever truly want them dead for good. Not that any of the sides being dead 'for good' was going to be a problem they had to deal with anytime soon. 

Deceit had approached just in time to hear Pathos' last words, and he stopped in front of them, arms crossed with a raised eyebrow. "Later," he said simply. "We need to talk about what I did to those idiots, but let's get out of here first."

Together, the trio left the subconsciousness, going back to the common rooms, which showed itself as Thomas' living room as always. During their trip, they remained silent, and all sat down in their normal spots as soon as they arrived. "Where are they?" Pathos asked, twitching in his seat as if excited for whatever was going to come next. Deceit's next words made him suddenly slump backward though, an expression of disappointment spreading over his face.

"I already gave them their punishment," Deceit said simply, with a creepy smirk. "It's... definitely too soft for what they deserve, but if I need to revisit them later and switch it up, I can." 

Logos and Pathos had both been unconscious before, so it made sense that Deceit had managed to take action earlier without alerting them to it first. "If I may ask, what punishment did you give them?" Logos asked a bit annoyed that he hadn't been told about this beforehand either, hating the fact that it seemed as though Deceit was still keeping things from them. 

"Once I had unburied Pathos, I had returned the favor to them," Deceit explained, tilting his head, his smile growing even creepier. "I buried them alive. Is that good enough for vengeance, 'Morality?'" 

Pathos wrinkled his nose at the use of his other name. He was still Morality, but he was twisted enough so that the use of that name just didn't fit him. It felt strange and weird, having it pressed onto him, presented like it was still the truth. All of them knew it was as far from the truth as you could get. 

Having mixed feelings on the punishment Deceit had decided on, Pathos ended up remaining silent on the matter, grimacing and looking away, hands still twitching slightly in his lap as if he couldn't control his own limbs. Deceit didn't seem to care about his silence and just continued on. "Since they're technically fine, Thomas won't suffer from them not being here physically, since they'll still be able to do their technical jobs from where they are."

It seemed like a bad excuse, but Logos and Pathos still accepted his words, waiting for this conversation to finish. They were both tired, mentally, of this entire situation, and wanted to go to their own rooms for a chance to take a pause and relax before they needed to continue on with whatever was going to happen next. With Deceit and Thomas, there was always going to be a 'next' no matter.

"Last of all..." Deceit stood up, making Logos and Pathos both look at him. Deceit had a serious expression on his face now, and he licked his lips, tilting his head and fixing them with a stare. It was intimidating. They both knew what Deceit could do to them if he was upset with them, and neither of them would call his current expression a happy one. "Virgil and Roman made a bad choice," Deceit said, tone fakely pleasant. "They tried to 'stand up' against me, tried to fight me and take over, and their mistake lead to their downfall."

"Do you two want to be buried alive? Stuffed full of knives? Cut into pieces? I will chain you down and cut off your limbs, and every time they regrow, I will cut them off and again, and again, until you're sobbing and begging me to stop... don't ever betray me. Do you understand?"

Logos nodded, trying to look calm, telling himself inwardly that it was fine, and that wasn't going to happen to him. Despite the projected ease, he was clearly tense though. Pathos didn't even bother to hide it, only swallowed thickly and nodded along with Logos. 

All three of them looked up suddenly, paying attention. They could feel it... Thomas stirring, and starting to awaken, his consciousness pulling him back into reality. "Back to work," Logos intoned quietly. 

"Always more work," Deceit agreed, still smiling emptily, baring sharp teeth. The two looked at him again, listening to Thomas wake up, watching his eyes flicker open. In the end... Deceit had sovereign authority. There was nothing anyone could do about it.


	14. Chapter 14

Some would argue that Roman shouldn’t have stepped above his place. They would say he got what he deserved. He had reached for the stars, and he had fallen short, and it was no ones fault but his own. When you rebel and strike back, you must prepare for the chance of failure. Of course, our corrupted king didn’t.

Some may say it wasn’t his fault. Some would shake their heads at this story, and wrinkle their noses, horrified about the scars that are laid on each of these characters. They would blame Deceit, or perhaps not even him… they would blame this universe, and the injuries put on Thomas that made him this broken in the first place.

Maybe one of those is accurate for you, or maybe both are wrong. Either way, the ending is clear. Virgil and Roman, buried away, the failures who tried so hard to become something more. Logos and Pathos, the mind and the heart, working in their places to further the snakes goals, pushing Thomas onto a pathway of pain and dishonesty, to give him everything he wants and more, even at the cost of innocents.

Deceit, the ruler of his kingdom, content with how things  _ ended.  _

The winners and the losers are clear, so the story is over, and it’s time to close the book, correct?

**"Don't think you can lock me away again. You can't."**

Or perhaps that’s not so correct. After all, if the snake took control in Thomas’ young childhood and hid that truth, how many other truths could he have hidden? How many other things did he hide away behind lock and key, closing the doors and pressing it back into the darkness?

The truth, some would say, always comes to light. Besides, Thomas is awake now, our broken savior. Is it forever said that the twisted sides shall remain twisted?

Much of the story is left unspoken. 

A broken universe. A twisted universe. A universe in which one Thomas Sanders was hurt so much, that it changed the very foundations of his mind, erasing the possibility of a kind soul, a helping soul, and leaving a monstrous thing in its wake. 

The twisted universe isn’t over yet. So, to quote many, many people….

_ To Be Continued.  _


End file.
